For this purpose specimens of all the woods and fibre-substances of all countries were examined. Special agents were sent to India, China, Japan, South America, in quest of peculiar fibrous substances. The various woods thus secured were despatched to the Edison plant at Menlo Park and there carefully examined and tested. Without dwelling on the endless details of this tedious task, it may be said at once that only three substances out of all the mass withstood the tests reasonably well. Of these, a species of Japanese bamboo was found to answer the purpose best. Thus the practical incandescent lamp, which had cost so much time, ingenuity, and money, came into existence, fulfilling the expectation of the most sanguine dream of its inventor. In using these bamboo carbon filaments the original spiral form of filament was abandoned, the now familiar elongated horseshoe being adopted, as the carbon could not be bent into the tortuous shapes possible with platinum. Later various modifications in the shape of the filament were made, usually as adaptations to changes in the shape of the bulbs. At the same time that Edison was succeeding with his bamboo carbon filaments, J. W. Swan had been almost as successful with a filament formed by treating cotton thread with sulphuric acid, thus producing a "parchmentized thread," which was afterwards carbonized. A modification of this process eventually supplanted the Edison bamboo filament; and the filament now in common use--the successor of the "parchmentized thread"--is made of a form of soluble cellulose prepared by dissolving purified cotton wool in a solution of zinc chloride, and then pressing the material out into long threads by pressing it through a die. The long thread so obtained is a semi-transparent substance, resembling catgut, which when carbonized at a high temperature forms a very elastic form of carbon filament. To prepare the filament the cellulose threads are cut into the proper lengths, bent into horseshoe shape, double loops, or any desired form, and then folded round carbon formers and immersed in plumbago crucibles. On heating these crucibles to a high temperature the organic matter of the filaments is destroyed, the carbon filaments remaining. These filaments are then ready for attachment to the platinum leading-in wires, which is accomplished either by means of a carbon cement or by a carbon-depositing process. They are then placed in the glass bulbs and the wires hermetically sealed, after which the bulbs are exhausted, tested, fitted with the familiar brass collars, and are ready for use.