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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

Factual: Money

The stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which helped create the economic world

Tim Harford tells the fascinating stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world.

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy: Lightbulb

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The Lightbulb

24/12/2016 GMT

Lightbulb

BBC World Service - 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy, LightbulbSearch BBC

Once too precious to use, light is now too cheap to notice

Once too precious to use, light is now too cheap to notice – an explanation of the profound significance of the lightbulb

Once too precious to use, now too cheap to notice – the significance of the lightbulb is profound. Imagine a hard week’s work gathering and chopping wood, ten hours a day for six days. Those 60 hours of work would produce light equivalent to one modern bulb shining for just 54 minutes. The invention of tallow candles made life a little easier. If you spent a whole week making them – unpleasant work – you would have enough to burn one for two hours and twenty minutes every evening for a year. Every subsequent technology was expensive, and labour-intensive. And none produced a strong, steady light. Then, as Tim Harford explains, Thomas Edison came along with the lightbulb and changed everything, turning our economy into one where we can work whenever we want to.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon

(Photo: Electric lightbulb, Credit: Science photo library)

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