A sweeping history of the electric light revolution and the birth of modern America The late nineteenth century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but more than any other invention, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb marked the arrival of modernity, transforming its inventor into a mythic figure and avatar of an era. In The Age of Edison, award-winning author and historian Ernest Freeberg weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural America, tracing the progress of electric light through the reactions of everyone who saw it and capturing the wonder Edison’s invention inspired. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility in which the greater forces of progress and change are made by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects.

How the Light Bulb Changed History examines the invention of the light bulb, how it works, and how electric light changed the way people live and work. Features include essential facts, a glossary, selected bibliography, websites, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and maps, charts, and diagrams. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Examines the electric bulb, an invention that ultimately led to new uses of electricity.

A look at how the invention of the lightbulb has changed the world

Traces the history of artificial lighting and the invention of the light bulb.

Series focuses on inventions we often take for granted and how they have changed our lives.

Electricity was not the invention of one individual, but the work of many over generations, from civilizations around the world. This book comprehensively covers the invention of electricity, from the cultures that tried to harness the power of lightning over centuries to Benjamin Franklin's tests with a kite and a key, the industrialization of the lightbulb by Thomas Edison, and the use of electric power today. Through sidebars, fact boxes, and colorful photographs, this book highlights the key moments, positive and negatives impacts, and technological innovations relating to one of the most revolutionary technologies today.