the.com/incandescent bulb

a wire so offended by electricity it glows until it dies of embarrassment.

means a light source that produces light by heating a thin filament until it glows white-hot, wasting most of the energy as heat.

from edison didn't invent it so much as out-patent everyone else in 1879, finding a carbonized bamboo filament that survived long enough to be commercially sane, after decades of rival inventors like swan and jablochkov had already gotten wires to glow.

for instance

edison's 1879 bulblasted 13.5 hours on carbonized thread, historic proof

centennial lightlivermore fire station bulb, glowing continuously since 1901

ge mazda lamp1909 tungsten filament model that made bulbs actually practical

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