Thomas Alva Edison, U.S. inventor, best known for his development of the photograph and the incandescent lamp, was even more notable for the wide range of his interest. He was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. He was experimenting for some time with what he called "electric lamp for giving light by incandescence”. On October 21, 1879, in his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, after spending more than $40000 in fruitless experiments, he finally succeeded in making an incandescent lamp in which a loop of carbonized cotton thread glowed in a vacuum glass bulb for more than 40 hours. He himself described the event as "the sight we had so long desired to see met our eyes." The following decade was devoted to the invention and exploitation and methods for the generation and distribution of electricity, including the three-wire system.
His invention of the electric bulb, in a way, revolutionalised the technical and social development of mankind. This small ubiquitous device which is so familiar today, is really a gift to humanity by this great scientist, who worked hard to continuously improve its performance ever since its invention. In the course of years, the method of production of electric bulb has developed from manual techniques to a completely mechanical activity in order to carter to the ever increasing demand all over the world, and, as a result of it, a new great break-through was achieved an incandescent lamp technology with the halogen lamp having a luminous efficacy of 20 to 30 lumens per watt. In an indirect way, the incandescent lamp has been the motive power behind all further development in the industrial and domestic use of electricity. The fact that radio valves were derived originally from the incandescent lamp, confirm the origin of electronics and its later development as well. The electric lamp, without doubt, has brought 'Light for everybody' and is still doing so!
This stamp honours Thomas Alva Edison for the invention of the electric light lamp one hundred years ago.
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