Edison Lamp Collection and Inventors

Historic Edison Collection

Most Famous Lamps in the World - Found at last

Famous Edison Lamp Collection DISCOVERED After Century in Darkness

MOST HISTORIC ELECTRIC LIGHTS EVER MADE

Light-in-a-Bottle, as the pint size illuminating artifact was once called, is not the brainchild of just Thomas A. Edison. Other great minds of his time were also very much involved. Several of these tenacious visionary men are pictured here with Edison - Sir Joseph W. Swan, John W. Howell, and Sir Hiram S. Maxim. With only the crude tooling of their time, it is miraculous how these men were able to form glass, platinum, and carbon into a safer form of light, and, make it affordable to the common man. Even the passing of more than a century does not diminish the marvel of their accomplishment. Presented here are the original artifacts that were once at the center of an incredible historic time. Visit and enjoy each and every exhibit. See and learn more about the most famous electric lamps in the world. Here are the Edison court battle lamps, the British Electric Light Company lamp, the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition lamps, the 1883 Edison Effect lamp, and more. These are the lamps made by Sir Joseph W. Swan, John W. Howell, and Sir Hiram S. Maxim. These men are the key Witnesses and Defendants in EDISON'S most famous electric lamp infringement battle.

A brief sketch of the historically accurate events surrounding this great judicial battle help illustrate a fascinating yet shocking true story: On September 23, 1880 the U. S. Patent Commissioner declared Patent Interference between Edison's key lamp patent and a Sawyer and Man lamp patent. The Commissioner's declaration erupted into a decade-long courtroom drama involving three trials and an appeal*. The battle became front page news carried by every meaningful newspaper on the globe. Journalists would beg, borrow and steal to get the latest scoop, not just because the story was about the greatest technology ever invented, there was more, much more. Yes, it was a duel between the top ten inventors of the Victorian age, but within that fight there were the juicier accounts of courtroom tactics and back room deals waged by the highest paid lawyers in the world. They made upstarts into kings and left tycoons penniless. In this saga there were winners Knighted and losers who just seemed to disappear. The editorials grumbled about cloudy scandals and shady politics riddled with graft and corruption. It drove some to drink. It drove one to attempt murder who was caught literally holding the smoking gun. When the smoke settled and the gavel was finally ready to come down, at the center of it all was this small wooden box. When the box was opened for the court and the world to see, the headlines revealed "Edison had no rival," and Lady Justice was left with a good doctor shot, the bad woman scorned, two scoundrels scurrying, a dozen old industry barons licking their wounds, and one famous electrical engineer found dead, mysteriously electrocuted.

What was at stake that would cause such turmoil? Money, lots of money. At the time (1892), the estimate of money already invested in the fledgling decade-old electric industry, in terms of purchasing power, would be equivalent to more than $12 Billion today (Source Reference).

It is truly inspiring to see this impressive master collection firsthand and to reflect back on how this small wooden box held the code a century ago that unlocked the great wealth of an industry now worth trillions.

Go To: a Large View of Each Famous Electric Light

to be Auctioned at Christie's in December 2006

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* The three trials and the appeal - a) 1881 - Sawyer and Man vs. Edison, b) 1883 - Edison vs. Maxim vs. Swan, c) 1885 - Edison Electric Light Company vs. United States Electric Light Company, and d) 1892 Appeal - Edison Electric Light Company vs. United States Electric Light Company.

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