Mind Hacks

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The tool on the cover of Mind Hacks is an incandescent light bulb. While many assume that Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, Edison’s actual achievement was to advance the design of the light bulb from a patent he purchased in 1875 from Canadian inventors Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans. Edison’s improvement was to place a carbon filament in a vacuum bulb, which then burned for 40 hours. An English chemist, Humphrey Davy, invented the first electric light—an arc lamp—by connecting two wires to a battery and attaching a strip of charcoal in the middle of the circuit. Other inventors continued to make various incremental improvements in such areas as the filaments and the process for creating a vacuum in the bulb, but in 1879, Edison developed a triple threat: a carbon filament, lower voltage, and an improved vacuum in the bulb.

In 1882, Pearl Street Station, in New York City, was the first central electricity-generating station constructed to support the light bulb invention. Although the alternating-current method of generating electricity proposed by Nikola Tesla proved to be the superior technical solution, Edison was engaged in a battle for control of America’s electric infrastructure. Edison declared that his ...