October 13 1868, Edison executed the first of his 1,093 successful U.S. patent applications at the age of 21. He filed an estimated 500–600 unsuccessful or abandoned applications as well

Thomas Alva Edison stood in the Wall Street offices of financial mogul J.P. Morgan and switched on his Edison incandescent light bulb – a bulb powered by a generator at his new Pearl Street Station power plant several city blocks away.

The modern world is an electrified world. The light bulb, in particular, profoundly changed human existence by illuminating the night and making it hospitable to a wide range of human activity.