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| A press photo of Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) features the incandescent lamps he developed at his Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey. Although Edison did not originate the concept of the incandescent lamp, his invention of a one-piece carbon filament that glowed within a vacuum significantly extended the lifespan of the lightbulb, making it practical for everyday use. |
In September 1878, Thomas A. Edison began experimenting to develop an electric incandescent lamp with a lifespan suitable for commercial use. By 1879, he had completed his first lamp, which used a platinum filament. Although it generated significant interest, it was soon discovered that the lamp required perfectly consistent pressure and did not meet Edison's expectations. Undeterred, Edison continued his work and, on October 21, 1879, discovered that a high-resistance carbon filament in a vacuum was the key to creating a commercially viable incandescent lamp.
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| First day issue of the Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamp on covers, postmarked at Menlo Park, NJ, on June 5, 1929, signed by Thomas Edison. This special Edison commemorative postage stamp was issued in 1929 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the first practical incandescent lamp by Thomas Edison on October 21, 1879. On May 7, 1929, the philatelic world was informed by a telegram from Congressman Ackerman of New Jersey that the department planned to issue this stamp the following month. |
The incandescent lamp was patented on January 27, 1880, following an application submitted on November 4, 1879. A patent for the multiple-arc system was filed on February 6, 1880. This patent encompassed a comprehensive system for generating and distributing electric current for lighting, heating, and power. The "Edison 3-wire" system, invented in 1882, received its patent in March 1883.
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| Covers with the Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamp postmarked at Menlo Park on October 21, 1929, to mark the 50th anniversary. |
On December 31, 1879, Thomas Edison gave a public demonstration of his lights at Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he was living and conducting research. The facility had the capacity for about 500 lights, drawing large crowds of visitors. In January 1881, The Edison Electric Light Company, which had been formed in October 1878 during the Menlo Park experiments, opened an office at 65 Fifth Avenue in New York City. There, an Edison lighting system was showcased for scientists and curious onlookers. The plans for a central station system for New York City were also developed at this location. That same year, Edison Machine Works began manufacturing heavy electrical equipment, and Edison Lamp Company started producing Edison lamps.
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| A mailing envelope displaying the corner card "The Edison Company For Isolated Lighting" located at 65 Fifth Avenue, New York. A corner card is the printed return address or identifying information typically located in the upper left corner of a postal envelope. It often includes details like the sender's name, business name, logo, and address. Originally used by businesses in the 19th century, corner cards can also serve as a promotional or branding tool for organizations. |
In early 1880, the idea of isolated power plants was explored, leading to the formation of the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting in October 1881 to oversee this area of business. The company sold small generating systems to provide lighting for individual homes, factories, and businesses. On December 31, 1886, it was absorbed by the Edison Electric Light Company, which had financed Edison's electric light experiments in exchange for control of the resulting patents. In 1889, the company merged with several other Edison enterprises to form the Edison General Electric Company.
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| A mailing envelope displaying the corner card "The Edison Company for Isolated Lighting" with a Maryland address. |
The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York was established on December 17, 1880, to build electric generating stations in New York City. Its first central station, located on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan, began operations on September 4, 1882. This company served as a model for other local illuminating companies that emerged across the United States during the 1880s. In 1901, it merged with the New York Gas & Electric Light, Heat & Power Company to form the New York Edison Company. In 1936, the company was renamed Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
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| A mailing envelope displaying the corner card "The Edison Electric Illuminating Company Co., of New York."
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| A mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston". |
Edison Lamp Works began producing lamps in the summer of 1880. In early 1881, it became a formal partnership under the name Edison Electric Lamp Company, with partners Thomas Edison, Charles Batchelor, Edward H. Johnson, and Francis R. Upton. The company changed its name to Edison Lamp Company in May 1881, and in 1882, relocated its factory from Menlo Park to East Newark (Harrison), N.J. The partnership was incorporated in 1884. In 1889, it acquired the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company, and on April 15, 1892, it merged with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form the General Electric Company.
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| First day of issue on a mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Edison Lamp Works of General Electric Company". |
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| First day cover from Ernest R. Ackerman, with a "Edison Mazda: More Light For Less Money" cinderella cachet. Ernest Robinson Ackerman (17 June 1863 – 18 October 1931) was an American Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1919 to 1931. Ackerman was a famous philatelist, and had created a number of award-winning exhibits of postal stamps and postal history. |
The Edison Manufacturing Company, initially registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company, was established by Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 1889. It replaced the Edison United Manufacturing Company, which had been founded in 1886 as a sales agency for the Edison Lamp Company, Edison Machine Works, and Bergmann & Company, manufacturers of electric lighting fixtures, sockets, and other accessories. The Edison United Manufacturing Company was liquidated on October 31, 1889, and succeeded by the Edison Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated in Newark, New Jersey, with its headquarters in West Orange on May 4, 1900.
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| A mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Edison Manufacturing Company". |
In 1886, Thomas Edison began constructing a new facility in West Orange, New Jersey. By 1887, his laboratory had relocated from Menlo Park to this larger space in West Orange. The Edison laboratories operated for over 40 years, during which Edison refined his earlier inventions and developed new ones. Notable innovations that emerged from the West Orange laboratories included the motion picture camera, enhanced phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound films, and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery.
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| A mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Edison Laboratory". |
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| First day cover postmarked at Orange, NJ, on the day of sale of the Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamp on June 5, 1929. |
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| First day of issue postmarked at West Orange, NJ, on June 5, 1929. |
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| A cover with Menlo Park and West Orange postmarks cancelled on the same day, June 5, 1929. |
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| First day of issue postmarked at Newark, NJ, on June 5, 1929, with a slogan cancellation. |
In 1887, Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan acquired the Erie County Light Company and built a new power station at the northwest corner of E 12th and French Street in Erie. Erie, Pennsylvania, was among the first cities in the world to be electrified.
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| A mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Edison Electric Light & Power Co" (Pennsylvania). |
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| Post office at Menlo Park swamped by approximately 250,000 mails from collectors to have the Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamps enclosed or cancelled on the day of sale. A police guard was there as all the mails contained money. Nearly all the mails were addressed to the "Postmaster of Menlo Park"，James F. Shepard - Carteret Press, Carteret, N. J., Friday, June 7, 1929. On the right is a cover autographed by the postmaster at Menlo Park, James F. Shepard. |
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| A postcard featuring a portrait of Thomas Edison and the Electric Light Golden Jubilee stamp, postmarked at Menlo Park on its first day of issue, with Harold G. Hoffman's signature on the back. As a U.S. Congressman in 1929, Harold G. Hoffman protested the closure of the Menlo Park post office, which held significant historical value due to its proximity to Thomas Edison’s laboratory, where many of his major inventions, including the incandescent light bulb, were created. Hoffman argued that closing the post office would diminish the historical importance of the area, particularly given its connection to Edison’s work. |
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| First day of issue on a mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Edison Pioneers". The Edison Pioneers was an organization composed of former employees of Thomas Edison who had worked with the inventor in his early years. Membership was limited to people who had worked closely with Edison before 1885, although in later years descendants of Edison Pioneers were also allowed membership. |
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| First day of issue on a mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Thomas A Edison, Inc. Edison Signal Batteries-Primary and Storage" (Bloomfield, NJ). |
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| First day of issue on a mailing envelope displaying the corner card "Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison" (Orange, NJ). |
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| First day issue on a postcard with a photo of Thomas Edison returned to Menlo Park on May 16, 1925 to unveil a memorial tablet to honor him and his work at Menlo Park. The tablet was the gift to the State of New Jersey of the Edison Pioneers, men who worked side by side with the inventor in the old days, and it was unveiled by Mrs. Edison, the inventor's wife. The tablet was set in a huge granite boulder with a base of concrete containing bricks from the foundation of the first Edison home in Menlo Park. |
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| A first day cover featuring an Electric Light Golden Jubilee stamp with imperforations on the top and right edges, along with both horizontal and vertical guide lines. These flat plate stamps were printed in sheets of 400, which were divided into panes of 100 by horizontal and vertical guide lines. The post office prepared the sheets by cutting along these guide lines to create panes of 100 stamps. Each full sheet contained eight plate numbers, with two located on each pane, positioned beside the fifth stamp from the outer corner. |
This Edison commemorative stamp was placed on sale on June 5, 1929, at the post office at Menlo Park, NJ. The stamps were available at other post offices and at the Philatelic Agency, Post Office Department, Washington, DC, as soon after that date. This stamp also issued in coils of 500, sidewise perforated, but not available on the first day of sale.
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| Postmarked in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 1929, for the official first day of issue. |
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| Although the Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamp was not made available to other post offices until after June 5, 1929, covers like the one above, postmarked in Washington, D.C., on June 5, 1929, do exist. |
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| Postmarked in New York on June 5, 1929. |
Due to high demand for the stamp, it was decided to print additional quantities using rapid rotary presses. These were first made available for sale at the Philatelic Agency on June 11, 1929, alongside the coils. The primary demand came from large manufacturers of electrical supplies, who planned to use these stamps for advertising on their mail for several years. This anticipated demand significantly influenced the decision to issue coil stamps in rolls. Since most of the stamps issued in rolls were utilized by companies in the electrical industry, only a limited number reached collectors, making used copies of this stamp rarer than the mint versions from the flat plate or rotary press issues.
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| An Electric Light's Golden Jubilee coil stamp, postmarked in Washington, D.C., on its first day of sale, June 11, 1929, with a slogan cancellation. |
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| A cover with a strip of four Electric Light's Golden Jubilee coil stamps, postmarked in Washington, D.C., on June 11, 1929. |
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| Two envelopes feature a pair of Electric Light's Golden Jubilee coil stamps, each bearing a postmark from Washington, D.C., dated June 11, 1929, and canceled with a slogan. The envelope at the bottom displays a joint line between the pair of stamps, which is a characteristic that appears on every 17th stamp in a roll. |
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| A cover with a joint line pair of Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamps, postmarked at Menlo Park on October 21, 1929, commemorating the 50th anniversary. |
On October 21, 1929, Henry Ford hosted
Light's Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th anniversary of Thomas Edison's invention of the incandescent lamp. During the evening's program, Thomas Edison and
Francis Jehl re-enacted the first successful lighting of the incandescent lamp as it took place in nearby Greenfield Village.
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| Covers featuring the slogan "EDISON CELEBRATION LIGHTS GOLDEN JUBILEE 1879 - 1929," postmarked in Greenfield on October 21, 1929. |
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| A cover with a joint line pair of Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamps, postmarked in Pittsburgh, Pa, on October 21, 1929. Pittsburgh celebrated the 50th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of the incandescent light bulb with events from October 23 to 28. The festivities included a parade of illuminated floats, a light pageant at Forbes Field, and an air show at Bettis Field. Over 25,000 people attended the Forbes Field event, while 70,000 watched the air circus. Organized by the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, the celebration also honored “Fifty Years of Pittsburgh Progress,” featuring skits about notable figures such as Andrew Carnegie, George Westinghouse, and H.J. Heinz. |
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| The front and back of a block of the rapid rotary pressed stamps with fold over perforation error. |
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| Thomas Alva Edison passed away at 3:24 AM on Sunday, October 18, 1931, at his residence, Glenmont, located in the Llewellyn Park area of West Orange, New Jersey. The renowned inventor, whose innovations transformed daily life in remarkable ways, was 84 years and 8 months old. The above first day cover for the Electric Light's Golden Jubilee stamp was mailed to obtain a postmark in West Orange, NJ, on October 18, 1931, just within the hour of Thomas Edison's passing. |
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| A photograph signed by Thomas A. Edison, dedicated to St. George Brooke Tucker (Secretary, Board of Assessors of the City of New York, Municipal Building). |
(Reference from
theSwedishTiger US Stamp Guide - #654 2¢ Flat Plate Edison Issue 1929 ,
Electrical Industries in the State of New York,
Thomas A. Edison Papers (Rutgers-New Brunswick),
Ernest R. Ackerman,
Thomas Edison and Menlo Park,
The Dearborn Historian, Volume 19, Number 4, Light's Golden Jubilee,
The Unveiling of a Tablet in Honor of Thomas Alva Edison,
[E1483AJ], Letter from St George Brooke Tucker to Thomas Alva Edison, December 10th, 1914,
Lights Golden Jubilee (Pittsburgh, Pa.),
Thomas Edison Dies in Coma at 84)
