What was a major economic limitation of the early incandescent bulbs developed before Edison's success?
Answer
They had incredibly short lifespans, often burning out in mere minutes or hours.
Early attempts suffered severely from short lifespans, meaning the recurring cost of replacing filaments quickly outweighed any potential savings from electricity usage.
Related Questions
What was Edison's primary achievement celebrated in the text, rather than the initial concept of illumination?What was Sir Humphry Davy's early demonstration in the 1800s?What material did Joseph Swan use for his functional incandescent bulb demonstrated publicly before Edison?What was a major economic limitation of the early incandescent bulbs developed before Edison's success?Which electrical circuit configuration did Edison champion for his practical distribution system over alternatives favored by contemporaries?Why did Edison's team abandon platinum as a filament material despite its high melting point?What characteristic defined Edison's goal for a successful light bulb for the typical customer?What was the initial breakthrough carbonized material that gave Edison's team about 13.5 hours of light in late 1879?Which material ultimately provided the first truly practical incandescent lamp filament lasting over 1,200 hours?What concept drove Edison's intense search for material durability over raw brightness?Besides generators and wiring, what user-facing components were part of Edison's required electrical ecosystem?