The Papers of Thomas A. Edison

With his move from Menlo Park, New Jersey, to New York City at the end of March 1881, Edison shifted his focus from research and development to the commercialization of his electric lighting system. This volume of The Papers of Thomas A. Edison chronicles Edison's central role in the enormous effort to manufacture, market, and install electric lighting systems in the United States and abroad. Standard studies of this period emphasize the inauguration of the commercial electric utility industry at the Pearl Street central station. Edison and his associates, however, audaciously operated on a global scale, not just focusing on the major cities of North America and Europe but reaching simultaneously from Appleton, Wisconsin, to Australia, through the Indian subcontinent and East Asia, to Central and South America.Praise for The Papers of Thomas A. Edison:"A mine of material . . . Scrupulously edited . . . No one could ask for more . . . A choplicking feast for future Edison biographers—well into the next century, and perhaps beyond."—Washington Post“What is most extraordinary about the collection isn't necessarily what it reveals about Edison's inventions . . . It's the insight into the process.”—Associated Press"Those interested in America's technological culture can eagerly look forward to the appearance of each volume of the Edison Papers."—Technology and Culture"His lucidity comes through everywhere . . . His writing and drawing come together as a single, vigorous thought process."—New York Times"A triumph of the bookmaker's art, with splendidly arranged illustrations, essential background information, and cautionary reminders of the common sources on which Edison's imagination drew."—New York Review of Books"In the pages of this volume Edison the man, his work, and his times come alive . . . A delight to browse through or to read carefully."—Science"Beyond its status as the resource for Edison studies, providing a near inexhaustible supply of scholarly fodder, this series . . . will surely become a model for such projects in the future . . . The sheer diversity of material offered here refreshingly transcends any exclusive restriction to Edisonia."—British Journal for the History of Scienc

The Papers of Thomas A. Edison

This newest volume in the acclaimed Papers of Thomas A. Edison covers one year in the life of America's greatest inventor—1878. That year Edison, whom a New York newspaper in the spring first called "the Wizard of Menlo Park," developed the phonograph, one of his most famous inventions; made a breakthrough in the development of telephone transmitters, which made the instrument commercially viable; and announced the advent of domestic electric lighting, with only a few weeks' worth of tinkering necessary to complete its design (the announcement sent gas-company stocks plummeting; the research and development went on for four years).These inventions brought Edison financial support for his work and attention from the public. In January investors in the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company agreed to fund development work on the phonograph. The invention made Edison internationally famous and in May he traveled to Washington, D.C., to show the phonograph at the National Academy of Sciences, to Congress, and to President Rutherford B. Hayes at the White House. That same month Western Union agreed to pay Edison an annual salary of $6,000 for his telephone inventions, although other support from the company declined following the death of its president, William Orton. The stress of unceasing public attention, including a trans-Atlantic dispute over the question of who invented the microphone, led an exhausted Edison to travel west during the summer to witness a solar eclipse but also to seek rest. His six-week trip took him to San Francisco and the Yosemite region of California. Edison began working on electric lighting after his return and in October the Edison Electric Light Company was formed to support his research

The Papers of Thomas A. Edison

The fifth volume of The Papers of Thomas A. Edison covers Edison's invention and development of the first commercial incandescent electric light and power system. In the process he turned his famed Menlo Park laboratory into the first true research and development facility. This also enabled him to develop a new telephone for the British market in the midst of his herculean efforts on electric lighting.In the face of daunting technical challenges and skepticism from leading scientists and engineers, Edison and his team of experimenters and machinists found the solution to the decades-old problem of creating a practical incandescent lamp. By focusing on the characteristics of the entire system Edison reconceptualized the requirements of a successful lamp design. While rivals worked primarily on lamps, Edison developed other parts of a complete system as well. This approach was most notable in his revolutionary work on generator technology, one of the highlights of this volume. Successful exhibitions of the system in December 1879 drew crowds to Menlo Park to witness the softly glowing lamps. These spectacles gratified his financial backers but Edison realized the importance of following experimental demonstrations with the hard work of commercial development. He needed to make each component work effectively in daily use and to improve the designs so that they were easy to use and inexpensive to manufacture. To create a daytime market for electricity he also developed electric motors for a variety of uses, including electric railways, for which he built a small demonstration line at Menlo Park. To accomplish all this Edison greatly enlarged his staff to as many as sixty experimenters, machinists, carpenters, and office workers. He began manufacturing lamps at a factory in Menlo Park. At the end of 1880, Edison was ready to move his system into commercial production and made plans to produce other components in New York. He also invited New York officials to a demonstration in order to win their approval for running underground lines in lower Manhattan where he planned to put his first commercial central station. In March 1881, he moved to the Edison Electric Light Company's headquarters on Fifth Avenue and began the hard work of introducing the new electric light and power technology

The Papers of Thomas A. Edison

This richly illustrated volume explores Edison's inventive and personal pursuits from 1888 to 1889, documenting his responses to technological, organizational, and economic challenges.Thomas A. Edison was received at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle—the World's Fair—as a conquering hero. Extravagantly fêted and besieged by well-wishers, he was seen, like Gustave Eiffel's iron tower, as a triumphal symbol of republicanism and material progress. The visit was a high-water mark of his international fame.Out of the limelight, Edison worked as hard as ever. On top of his work as an inventor, entrepreneur, and manufacturer, he created a new role as a director of research. At his peerless laboratory in Orange, New Jersey, he directed assistants working in parallel on multiple projects. These included the "perfected" phonograph; a major but little-recognized effort to make musical recordings for sale; the start of work on motion pictures; and improvements in the recovery of low-grade iron ore. He also pursued a public "War of the Currents" against electrical rival George Westinghouse. Keenly attuned to manufacturing as a way to support the laboratory financially and control his most iconic products, Edison created a new cluster of factories. He kept his manufacturing rights to the phonograph while selling the underlying patents to an outside investor in a deal he would regret. When market pressures led to the consolidation of Edison lighting interests, he sold his factories to the new Edison General Electric Company. These changes disrupted his longtime personal and professional relations even as he planned an iron-mining project that would take him to the New Jersey wilderness for long periods.The ninth volume of the series, Competing Interests explores Edison's inventive and personal pursuits from 1888 to 1889, documenting his responses to technological, organizational, and economic challenges. The book includes 331 documents and hundreds of Edison's drawings, which are all revealing and representative of his life and work in these years. Essays and notes based on meticulous research in a wide range of sources, many only recently available, provide a rich context for the documents

PENGEMBANGAN SUMBER BELAJAR BERBASIS ETNOMATEMATIKA DENGAN MODEL PjBL PADA MATERI BANGUN RUANG PRISMA

ABSTRACT This research is the development of learning resource based on etnomatematics with the learning model of Project Based Learning (PjBL) on the building material of prism room. The purpose of this study is to determine the validity, practicality and effectiveness of etnomatematics-based learning resources. Learning resources are developed in the form of student books and student worksheets based on ethnomatematics construct the prism room. This research type is research and development by using Borg and Gall model. This research was conducted in Junior High School Christian 1 Soe with the culture used is the woven of West Amanuban society in the form of oko. The results of this study indicate that the source of learning developed valid with the average percentage obtained 92.5% and also practical use in learning mathematics with the average percentage of teacher response 86% and 95.5% student response. This learning resource is also effective based on post-test results indicating that the average test score in the experimental class is 76.96 far greater than the control class 61.70. The proportion of students' completeness in the experimental class is 83% complete classically. Based on the results of the calculation of normalized gain score known that the percentage increase in mathematics learning achievement class VIII Junior High School Christian 1 Soe after taught with the source of learning based on ethnomatematics with PjBL model is 60% are in the category of being

Diversity of Plasmodial Myxomycetes From Anda Island, Pangasinan, Philippines

The unique life cycle and fascinating fruiting bodies of myxomycetes make them ideal model organisms for the study of cellular differentiation. Our research study then focuses on the diversity and abundance of myxomycetes found in Anda Island, Pangasinan in Northern Philippines. A total of 180 moist chambers were prepared from ground leaf litter and twigs collected from a 15 m2 quadrat within the study site. Twenty four species of myxomycetes belonging to 11 genera were collected and identified from the moist chambers: Arcyria (2), Collaria (1), Comatricha (1), Craterium (2), Diachea (1), Diderma (2), Didymium (1), Elaeomyxa (1), Perichaena (1), Physarum (11), and Stemonitis (1). Of all moist chambers, 55% yielded myxomycetes. Ground leaf litter (29%) yielded more myxomycetes than twigs (26%). Among the collected species, one for each of the genera Arcyria, Craterium, Diderma, and Physarum were recorded to be abundant. Interestingly, three species of myxomycetes are new records for the Philippines: Craterium microcarpum, Physarum decipiens and Elaeomyxa miyazakiensis. This is the first report of myxomycetes in Anda Island, Pangasinan, Philippines

The effects of halogen elements on the opening of an icosahedral B12 framework

The fully halogenated or hydrogenated B12X12 (X = H, F, Cl, Br and I) clusters are confirmed to be icosahedral. On the other hand, the bare B12 cluster is shown to have a planar structure. A previous study showed that a transformation from an icosahedron to a plane happens when 5 to 7 iodine atoms are substituted. Later, the transition was confirmed to be seven iodine substitutions based on an infrared spectroscopy study. In this study, we investigated the effects of different halogen atoms on the opening of the B12 icosahedral cage by means of density functional theory calculations. We found that the halogen elements do not have significant effects on the geometries of the clusters. The computed IR spectra show similar representative peaks for all halogen substituted clusters. Interestingly, we found a blue-shift in the IR spectra with the increase in the mass of the halogen atoms. Further, we compared the Gibbs free energies at different temperatures for different halogen atoms. The results show that the Gibbs free energy differences between open and close structures of B12X7 become larger when heavier halogen atoms are present. This interesting finding was subsequently investigated by energy decomposition analysis

Readability of Reading Texts in Student’s Handbook at The Ninth Grade of SMP Negeri 1 Telukdalam

Readability is an indicator that used to describe whether a text more or less available to the reader level. This study attempts to find out the appropriateness of the English reading texts in terms of the readability level for the target students. This study is designed by using descriptive qualitative method. The main data used is student’s handbook. The texts were consists of 7 descriptive texts and 1 narrative text and then those data were collected by using documentary technique. In calculating readability level, the researcher employed the Flesch readability formula. The results show that the average readability level of eight reading texts was at level seven grade student by showing the average of the percentage score was 72, 96%. Then, from the eight reading texts were categorized into four levels, namely: there are 2 texts of Easy level, Fairly Easy as many as 3 texts, Standard for 1 texts, and Fairly Difficult for 2 texts. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that those texts were disagree for the target students. Thus, for teachers, English Teacher particularly, should be wise in choosing a textbook as material for teaching students must be match with their capabilities level

Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 2, no. 3

A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. This issue focuses on: 1. Agnes Okoh. 2. Self-Sacrificial Christian Pioneers of Uganda. 3. Apolo Kivebulaya. 4. Njangalia. 5. Spetume Florence. 6. Luwum. 7. Janani Jakaliya. 8. Anglican Church in Uganda. 9. Lamin Sanneh