Using electricity on a large scale opens up great possibilities in various fields of science and everyday life. Using electric light in our homes we seldom think of those who were the pioneers in electrical engineering.
Several remarkable Russian scientists have made a great contribution to the science, Yablochkov and Lodygin being the best known to everyone. Lodygin’s having produced the first incandescent lamp is a generally recognized fact. His first lamps (1872), consisting of a glass bulb with a carbon rod serving as a filament, however, were imperfect, their life being only 30-40 minutes. Having introduced several carbon rods instead of one the scientist made the lamp serve a longer period.
After having seen Lodygin’s lamp Edison took great interest in the invention. We know of his having worked at the improvement of the lamp for several years. In 1879 Edison succeeded in creating an improved lamp which solved the problem of getting cheap electricity on a wide scale.
However, the carbon filament not being efficient and economic enough, Lodygin turned to the study of metals. Soon the necessary metal having a high melting point was found, it was tungsten. Many difficulties having been overcome, the problem of lighting our streets, plants and homes was solved.