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Nov 22, 2013 · In the 19th century, two Germans -- glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker -- discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it, an invention that became known as the Geissler tube.
Explore the history of the light bulb and discover who really invented it with BBC Science Focus Magazine.
- Early Research & Development
- Joseph Swan vs. Thomas Edison
- First Practical Incandescent Lightbulb
- Additional Resources
The story of the lightbulb begins long before Edison patented the first commercially successful bulb in 1879. In 1800, Italian inventor Alessandro Volta developed the first practical method of generating electricity, the voltaic pile. Made of alternating discs of zinc and copper— interspersed with layers of cardboard soaked in salt water — the pile...
In 1850, English chemist Joseph Swan began trying to make electrical light more economical, and by 1860 he had developed a lightbulb that used carbonized paper filaments in place of those made of platinum, according to the BBC. Swan received a patent in the U.K. in 1878, and in February 1879 he demonstrated a working lamp in a lecture in Newcastle,...
Where Edison surpassed his competition was in developing a practical and inexpensive lightbulb, according to the DOE. Edison and his team of researchers tested more than 3,000 designs for bulbs between 1878 and 1880. In Nov. 1879, Edison filed a patent for an electric lamp with a carbon filament, according to the National Archives.The patent listed...
Read more about Franklin's invention at the Franklin Institute. Learn more about Thomas Edison's life from MIT. Watch a video about how light bulbs work from minutephysics on YouTube.
Aug 27, 2022 · The real history of who created the first lightbulb goes back decades before Thomas Edison patented the carbon filament bulb in October 1879. Meet the largely-forgotten pioneers who started creating the light bulb some 80 years before Thomas Edison "invented" it.
Jul 18, 2023 · Joseph Swan (1828-1914) invented an early incandescent light bulb. His house in Gateshead in England was the first in the world to have working light bulbs installed. Picryl. Beyond Edison, the Englishman Joseph Swan may be the inventor with the greatest claim to inventing a practical light bulb.
Mar 16, 2019 · 1878 - Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914), an English physicist, was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electric lightbulb (13.5 hours). Swan used a carbon fiber filament derived from cotton. 1879 - Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours.
He is known as an independent early developer of a successful incandescent light bulb, and is the person responsible for developing and supplying the first incandescent lights used to illuminate homes and public buildings, including the Savoy Theatre, London, in 1881.
