Dashed left edge = started before January 1880 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond January 1880
Events in January 1880 2
1875 – 1880Munich, and Carl von LindeThe Carnot lectureAt the Technische Hochschule in Munich, Diesel hears Carl von Linde explain that a steam engine converts only a small fraction of its fuel into work, and that Carnot's theory sets a far higher ceiling. He writes in the margin of his notebook that he intends to study this. Typhoid delays his final exams by a year, and when he sits them in 1880 he records the highest marks in the institution's history to that date.
1880Edison patents the incandescent lampLong-lasting carbon-filament bulb secured for commercial useThomas Edison received US patent 223,898 for an electric incandescent lamp on 27 January 1880, covering the carbon-filament design his laboratory had refined. The patent underpinned the rapid commercialization of electric lighting over the following decade. Edison Electric Light Company began installing systems in New York soon after.