The intrigue: They had tried out the lights the night before, but they didn't work. In the words of Edison himself ... they clicked. "A faint blue spark was seen to appear simultaneously in ...

Over at the Edison shop, Johnson saw an opportunity. Setting up a tree by the street-side window of his parlor, Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs and strung them together ...

On New Year's Eve, 1879, Thomas Edison unveiled his newest invention: the electric light. Reporters came from all over the U.S. to see Edison's Menlo Park lab lit up with his incandescent bulbs.