
By about 1908, the Edison base was most common in the U.S. In 1892, Edison General Electric Company merged with Thomson-Houston to found General Electric, which gradually adopted the Edison screw and made it prevalent. Screw shells produced as early as 1888 had a light taper than the modern ones.

In response to Edison's patent, Reginald Fessenden invented the bi-pin connector for the 1893 World's Fair.Īfter some design tweaks Edison settled upon a screw 1 inch in diameter with 7 threads per inch of length, which much later became E26. Other lamp bases include the bayonet mount and wedge base.Īll three major designs were patented, Edison himself filed his applications in 18. : fig.7 Most smaller competitors had to produce lamps for all three types, and some used their own designs as well. : fig.8 The Sawyer-Man or Westinghouse base used a spring clip acting on grooves in the bulb base and a contact stud at the bottom of the lamp.

Another company, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, used a threaded stud at the bottom of the socket and a flat contact ring. In inventing his screw, Edison was inspired by a lid of a kerosene can in his workshop, he even sawed it off to make a prototype in 1880.

In the United States, early manufacturers of incandescent lamps used several different and incompatible bases in 1880s-1890s.
