The electric light was a failure.
Invented by the British chemist Humphry Davy in the early 1800s, it spent nearly 80 years being passed from one initially hopeful researcher to another, like some not-quite-housebroken puppy. In 1879, Thomas Edison finally figured out how to make an incandescent light bulb that people would buy. But that didn't mean the technology immediately became successful. It took another 40 years, into the
1920s, for electric utilities to become stable, profitable businesses.(snip)
... That's what this issue is about: all the little failures, trivialities and not-quite-solved mysteries that make the successes possible. This is what innovation looks like. It's messy, and it's awesome.
Maggie Koerth-Baker
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Bill Horne Moderator