Cleveland-based newspaperThe Plain DealersaysJapanese people represent the largest percentage of visitors to Edisons childhood home in Milan, Ohio.
Edison shares an unlikely connection with Japan.
The bamboo grove near Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine in Kyoto.
Bamboo from this area was used to make filaments for the first light bulbs.
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Edison began experimenting with incandescent light bulbs in 1878.
Many inventors had tried to perfect the incandescent lamp but the bulbs they built had extremely short lives.
Others were expensive to make which made them impossible to apply on a large scale commercially.
Still others drew large amounts of current that required excessively thick wires that again raised costs.
Finding a good material for the filament was one major problem that Edison eventually overcame.
to prolong the life of the filament, the material should also be durable to heat.
Edison decided to try a carbonizedcotton threadfilament.
That bulb glowed for a record fourteen hours.
Edison continued to experiment with different organic materials which he carbonized in his laboratory.
He contacted biologists and had them send different plant fibers from the tropics.
He sent his workers to different places around the globe looking for the perfect material.
The bamboo also made fine fishing rods.
In any case, Edison discovered that carbonized bamboo made excellent lamp filaments.
Some of the bulbs Edison and his team built burned for over 1,200 hours.
The first tungsten filament lamps were made by a Hungarian company called Tungsram in 1904.
By 1911, Edisons company, General Electric, had switched to tungsten.
Edison died in 1931.
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