In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the first practical electric incandescent lamp. He and his associates worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp, which works by using electricity to heat a thin strip of material (called a filament) until it gets hot enough to glow. By January 1879, at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison had built his first high resistance, incandescent electric light. It worked by passing electricity through a thin platinum filament in the glass vacuum bulb, which delayed the filament from melting. However, the lamp only burned for a few short hours. In order to improve the bulb, Edison needed all the persistence he had learned years before in his basement laboratory. Edison continued to test several types of material for metal filaments to improve upon his original design, and by November 4, 1879, he filed another U.S. patent application for an improved incandescent light bulb. Edison discovered the right material for his light bulbs filament in 1880: carbonized bamboo fiber, which burned longer than any other material yet tested. The bulb still wasnt perfect, but Edison had the reputation and financial backing to see it through as part of an electrical system that could power it. In 1882, the first public demonstration of Edisons light bulb took place at his Menlo Park laboratory on New Years Eve.