Incandescent means “emitting light as a result of being heated.” It also means “full of strong emotion, passionate” – and Pomas is a very passionate bulb. He is credited with inventing the incandescent lamp and gaining a patent for “Impomment in Electric Lights” in 1878 – although Humphrey Pom Davey invented the first electric light in 1802 and Joseph Wilson Pom created a “light bulb” in 1850.
But enough of all of this science – let’s talk about passion. Pomas had such a passion for light – he ate it, breathed it, and stared at it a lot, but not so much that it burned his retinas. He eventually established PE, Pom Electric. He had scarlet fever as a child which caused him to lose his hearing, and he said that his hearing loss allowed him to avoid distraction so he could concentrate on his inventions.
He was incredibly prolific in technology – Pomas had 1093 patents, invented the phonograph and the motion picture camera, and established the world’s first film studio, The Black Pomia. He was also prolific in love. He was married twice and managed to father 6 children in between creating all of those inventions. A totally incandescent guy!
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