# How Did Edison Get Tungsten? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746 "2003-09-05T16:31:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/1 "2003-09-05T16:31:16Z")
I’ve always wondered how tinkerers, like Edison or modern-day folk, get their hands on odd metals, like tungsten? I mean, it’s not like little Thomas Edison went down to the neighborhood Radio Shack, right? And even today, would Radio Shack have such supplies? So, where do garage tinkerers get such things, both then and now\*? - Jinx \*let’s assume pre-Internet, but if Internet…any recommended websites? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/2 "2003-09-05T16:35:35Z")
I’m sure there were chemical supply wholesalers. Edison probably got things by mail order. ---
**Author:** ![Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moo_the_Magic_Cow)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/3 "2003-09-05T16:40:51Z")
Edison did not use tungsten. He used carbon. William David Coolidge invented (discovered?) the tungsten filament. [cite](http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/edison/lightbulb.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/4 "2003-09-05T18:05:38Z")
Tungsten was and is a commodity used in the manufacture of steel and many other things. Then as now it just takes asking a fe people to find out where to find tungsten or crochet needles. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/5 "2003-09-05T19:01:38Z")
As Moo stated, TE did not use tungsten (wolfram). It should be mentioned that TE was NOT a “garage tinkerer,” at least not at the time he invented the light bulb. He was a professional inventor of the highest order. If a corporation or a hospital or a university laboratory could get substance, TE could certainly get it too. ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/6 "2003-09-05T19:17:38Z")
Edison also experimented with Gadolinium and other rare-earths elements; here’s how he got some of those: [http://home.satx.rr.com/robnjean/bh/story.html](http://home.satx.rr.com/robnjean/bh/story.html) ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/7 "2003-09-05T20:19:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\*I’m sure there were chemical supply wholesalers. Edison probably got things by mail order. \*\* There many items of chemicals etc. that were easily obtainable in any large town or city and in many smaller towns. You have to really get in a strain to find let alone buy some of the stuff today. Acids, solvents, etc. were purchased while still a student in H.S! Any attempt to do so today would frobably be sufficient cause for a visit from the EPA, FBI, Homeland Security, CIA, and many other gvrnmnt agncees. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by stuyguy \* > \*\* > It should be mentioned that TE was NOT a “garage tinkerer,” at least not at the time he invented the light bulb. He was a professional inventor of the highest order. If a corporation or a hospital or a university laboratory could get substance, TE could certainly get it too. \*\* Not a “garage tinkerer” but an indefatigueable scientific tinkerer none the less. He tried every possible material, method, etc. till he found one that worked. Otherwise known as ‘cut and try.’ Unless I’m badly mistaken Nikola Tesla worked for him at one time and when he proposed AC to replace DC for distribution Tesla departed Edison’s employment. Tesla was a genius who did detailed machine design in his head and built the object without the use of paper and pencil. Read “Man Out of Time.” ---
**Author:** ![herman\_and\_bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f1d935/32.png) [@herman\_and\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/herman_and_bill)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/8 "2003-09-05T21:11:30Z")
As I remember my history books, Edison sent employees around the world looking for new and different things. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/9 "2003-09-05T22:06:47Z")
Edison did use a “try everything that could possibly work” method of experimentation because in general he did not understand the “first principles” of some items. It has been argued effectively that his main objection to AC power was simply that it (and imaginary numbers such as “i”) made no sense to him whatsoever. He did (according to the biography I’ve read) send his employees to search for numerous items. Reputedly, he tried more than 6,000 different types of materials in many different configurations and diameters. Tungsten was discovered in 1783 and was available to Edison - in theory. Reputedly (and I do stress “reputedly”) Edison did experiment with tungsten during his 1878-1880 experiments, but did not have success with it due to quality control and implementation issues, and thus abandoned it. History credits William David Coolidge with using tungsten in electric lights in 1910 (whilst working for Westinghouse). ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-edison-get-tungsten/199746/10 "2003-09-05T23:46:59Z")
As was stated earlier by **Moo** Edison used carbon filaments. This from \*Britannica: "In the decades before the Edison incandescent carbon-filament lamp was patented in 1880, numerous scientists had directed their efforts toward producing a satisfactory incandescent lighting system. Outstanding among them was Sir Joseph Wilson Swan of England. In 1850 Swan had devised carbon filaments of paper; later he used cotton thread treated with sulfuric acid and mounted in glass vacuum bulbs (only possible after 1875). The final development of the incandescent lamp was the result of concurrent work by Swan and Thomas A. Edison of the United States, using the vacuum pump of Hermann Sprengel and Sir William Crookes. These lamps by Swan and Edison consisted of a filament of carbon wire in an evacuated glass bulb, two ends of the wire being brought out through a sealed cap and thence to the electric supply. When the supply was connected, the filament glowed and, by virtue of the vacuum, did not oxidize away quickly as it would have done in air. The invention of a completely practical lamp ordinarily is credited to Edison, who began studying the problem in 1877 and within a year and a half had made more than 1,200 experiments. On Oct. 21, 1879, Edison lighted a lamp containing a carbonized thread for the filament. The lamp burned steadily for two days. Later he learned that filaments of carbonized visiting card paper (bristol board) would give several hundred hours’ life. Soon carbonized bamboo was found acceptable and was used as the filament material. Extruded cellulose filaments were introduced by Swan in 1883."\*