How Edison had a lightbulb moment on his honeymoon

RARE sketches of lightbulb designs inventor Thomas Edison drew while on his honeymoon are up for sale.

The workaholic filled page after page of a notebook with ideas for improving the electric lamp he had first introduced to the world seven years earlier.

He carefully drew bulbs, wiring circuitry and other pieces of equipment as his “incredibly fertile” brain buzzed constantly with new projects.

The seven pages of notes, measuring 7in by 5in, were all done while he was supposed to be relaxing in Florida with new bride Mina Miller in 1886.

They are expected to fetch around £90,000 when they go under the hammer in an online auction.

As well the drawings Edison, whose middle name was Alva, signed his initials “TAE” beside the date.

The lot being sold by a private collector through Christie’s London also includes an original Edison lightbulb dating from around 1880.

Sophie Hopkins, Christie’s manuscripts and archives specialist, said: “The drawings show Edison continuing to tinker with his lightbulb in the years after its invention and patenting.

“More than anything they are a testament to his incredibly fertile inventive brain, endlessly fizzing over with new ideas. Like many great inventors throughout history, Edison was perpetually intellectually restless – there’s a good reason behind the record 1,093 patents he filed in his lifetime.

“Design drawings are rare on the market and none have appeared since 2000. Collectors looking for a piece of history will likely have some time to wait before such an opportunity presents itself again.”

Edison, who was born in Ohio in 1847, started out as a humble railway telegraph operator but ended up as a clever businessman and America’s greatest inventor.

He built the first electric lamp in 1879 but had major problems with carbonised paper filaments that rapidly burned out.

He tested thousands of other materials before hitting on a bamboo filament that could last over 1,200 hours.

By 1884, New York had over 500 registered users of the new so-called Edison Light.

Edison died in 1931 aged 84, having still found time to marry twice and father six children.

Original Edison bulb and one of the pages from his notebook