A Brief History of the LED The Light Emitting Diode is one of those inventions in history which was discovered almost by accident. After the invention of the transistor in the late 1940’s, many companies, including GE, Bell Labs, Lincoln Labs, RCA Research Labs and Texas Instruments were all working with various semiconductors in an attempt to develop more efficient electronic components. Gary Pittman and Bob Biard, were working at Texas Instruments, trying to make a solid state laser. They were working with a tunnel diode, a device which allows electrical current to pass in only one direction and can switch on and off at very high speeds. When they looked at the device with an infrared detector, they found that it gave off light. United Stated Patent number 3,293,513 for a “Semiconductor Radiant Diode” was filed on August 8, 1962. This first LED was sold in the summer of 1962 by Texas Instruments. It was the model SNX-100 and cost $130.00, roughly equivalent to $1,000 today! For a more detailed history of the LED and how it works: http://www.edisontechcenter.org/LED.html

For the most part they lined up but not 100% worked in layers and uses wire to connect all the positives and negatives together. Also added wire on the outside to help support the stability.

How the inside of the casing look, and the first version finished.

The template I used and the first ones i made. It wasn't even because the leads were too long on the store bout ones, I guess I could of cut them shorter. All the positives are connected from the outside and the negative on the inside.Really low current so I can't get zapped.

Just testing out the light when I got them.

The one thing that wasn't working for me while I was making this project was just some visual choices. I was stripping the wires and they were copper, so I was wondering how I could (because I didn't have any on hand). Tony knew a way, use solder to cover the copper wire, I was a bit apprehensive at first because the soldering iron kinda scared me at first because I didn't want to burn myself. Once I got the wire to he colour I wanted I stated to work on my project. I found out fast that you don't need much solder to hold the wires together. The clamps that I had were too big to use and got into the way so I had to employ tony to help out with an extra pair of hands. I had to be careful because the iron heated up the wire and I didn't want to burn Tony, but I did burned myself.

The first thing I was trying to figure out was how to get all my LEDs to line up. I made a template out foam core, measured out an two inch space between them all. The measurements was a four by four with two inches in between. The template held 16 LEDs and made it easy to work on multiple levels at once. I ordered one hundred LED online and waited for them to arrive. I waited, and waited, and waited for them to show up but it was getting late. My partner bought me four from the store for eight dollars and the next day my order came in which was ten dollars for one hundred but I was already playing with the one ones from the day before.