Artifact #3

DISCOVERED

After a Century in Darkness

Edison Trial Evidence Collection

"Edison Electric Light Company vs. United States Electric Light Company"

Tar-putty Lamp No. 3

Tar-putty Lamp Label - No. 19

Tar-putty Lamp No. 3 is also labeled Tar-putty Lamp Exhibit No. 19

"Edison Electric Light Company vs. United States Electric Light Company"

Tar-putty Lamp #3 (19) - The quarter courtroom square label located near the evacuation tip has a hand written "3" in black ink. The older courtroom exhibit label located near the base is marked in dark ink with the number "19" and marked out by pencil. Lamp #3 is one of the lamps made specifically for exhibit in the famous Edison patent suit. Made by John W. Howell in 1890 to the specifications in Edison's U.S. patent 223,898.

In this renowned courtroom battle Edison's rivals were winning the legal war right up to the moment these lamps were presented as evidence. In the world of intellectual property law, the Tar-putty lamp evidence is the most important patent exhibit ever proffered in the courtroom. This is the evidence that won the most famous technology infringement trial in history.

John Howell made his Tar-putty lamps to match the Patent Office Model lamps: (Edison's Menlo Park 1881 Lamp "8", Edison's Menlo Park 1881 Lamp "9", and Edison's Menlo Park 1881 Lamp "10").

Filament - eleven-loop Tar-putty (lamp-black and tar) with each end connected by a folded platinum clamp attached to platinum wire leg, embedded through glass stem mount (conductors no longer present in glass stem mount).globe with top evacuation tip. Lamp dimensions - 3.1/8 in. (7.95cm) high, the filament 14/16in. (2.25cm)

Transcript Volume V, pg. 3505 - Deshler testimony about Tar-putty lamp No. "19"

2007 is this lamp's 117 th. Anniversary

Go To the Collection Group Exhibit

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