selecting carbonized bamboo for his first commercial electric light bulb. Adapted for the internet from “Thomas Edison, Chemist” produced by the National Historic Chemical Landmarks program of the ...

On New Year's Eve, 1879, Thomas Edison unveiled his newest invention: the electric light. Reporters came from all over the U.S. to see Edison's Menlo Park lab lit up with his incandescent bulbs.

The history of how these mass-produced novelty lights became a holiday fixture is a distinctly American Christmas tale.

at least — the bulbs don’t look different on the outside. You might have learned in school that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but the truth is much stranger (public domain ...