ELECTRIC LIGHTS' GOLDEN JUBILEE

Abstract

Peace has its heroes no less than war. When the opportunity presents itself so conspicuously as in the case ot the fiftieth anniversary of the invention of the incandescent light, the School would be negligent indeed if proper honor were not given to the occasion and to the inventor, Thomas A. Edison. The eyes of the world were focused on the white-haired Wizard of Menlo Park, whose painstaking experiments had brought more abundant light to all civilization. What better plan to celebrate this event than in the morning assembly of the whole School? This was not a matter for a single group of pupils, but all grades and all ages were concerned and could contribute to this exercise. At a morning exercise a week or two in advance of October 21, 1929, the entire School was told of a proposed exercise to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the invention of incandescent light by Thomas A. Edison, and everyone was invited to contribute specimens of early forms of lighting for the exhibit. It was found that interest was already at a high pitch, due to the extensive newspaper and magazine publicity which the Jubilee had received. Consequently there was no difficulty in obtaining pupils to take part. The exhibit of early forms of lighting proved to be a most interesting part of the exercise. This included the following, arranged somewhat in historical sequence: