"Leif Neland" wrote in message ...
Følgende er skrevet af William Sommerwerck:

This is an Edison experiment. And that is not meant as a compliment
to Thomas Alva.

Are you referring to T.A.E is said to have tried thousands of different
materials for the filament in light bulbs without thoughts of what might
have been useful?

That's the story. I'm not sure it's true. It might have been that Edison
wanted to make himself look industrious and hard-working. Regardless, whatever
the material, it had to be conductive, and reach a high enough temperature to
emit light, without falling apart. There aren't that many materials. I don't
know whether a common metal -- such as iron -- would have worked.

It's noteworthy that General Electric developed the sintered-tungsten filament
that replaced Edison's carbon filament. GE was the first company to set up a
laboratory for basic research, because it understood that a better
understanding of basic science and applied technology would result in
profitable products.

Edison also developed one of the first storage batteries, again after testing
hundreds of possible electrode materials. I once asked someone (I don't
remember who) why he didn't just drop a note to Josiah Gibbs and ask for list
of likely suspects. I was told that he /did/ consult with scientists about
such things.