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MarkieSparkie
The History of the Incandescent Lamp.
Around 240 million light bulbs were sold each year in the UK. [1]
Incandescent lights work by using electricity to heat a filament until it gets hot enough to glow brilliant white.
Who invented the light bulb?
Those readers, who answered Edison, are wrong. In the past, Thomas Alva Edison was incorrectly credited as having invented the light bulb, largely due to Hollywood pro-American propaganda. He in fact improved on an idea that others had been experimenting with for 50 years, but he did make it a commercial success, largely because he also developed a more efficient electrical generator and as a result of this, set up an electricity supply company, selling not only electricity to customers but light-bulbs as well.
Those smug readers, who knew the answer was Swan, are also wrong. Although Joseph Wilson Swan was working on a light bulb long before Edison, he struggled to make the filament incandescent and long lasting, his carbon paper thread filament burnt up quickly because he lacked a vacuum pump powerful enough to evacuate the oxygen from the tube sufficiently. It was not until 1878 that he was able to demonstrate to an audience in Newcastle, a true incandescent lamp able to last about 13.5 hours and was granted a UK patent for the bulb in the same year, he was not, however the first.
In fact, Canadians Henry Woodward (medical electrician) and Matthew Evans (hotelier) from Toronto patented the first incandescent light bulb in 1874. They demonstrated their first incandescent lamp with a shaped carbon rod 'filament' held between electrodes in a glass bulb, and uniquely, filled with the inert gas nitrogen, thus by-passing the vacuum problems experienced by Swan and Edison, Woodward and Evans, however, could not raise the money to exploit it.
Edison, who had read about Swan's preliminary designs in an article published in 'Scientific American' magazine years earlier, had begun experimenting with this idea himself and immediately saw the commercial potential. He bought the U.S. patent rights from the Canadians, and by 1880, he had produced a 16 Watt bulb that could last for 1,500 hours and began to market it with great success.
Swan, however, was resentful; privately believing Edison was a plagiarist. When Edison started selling bulbs in the British Empire, lining his pockets with money made from, as Swan saw it, his invention. Swan felt forced to act, taking Edison to Court for patent infringement. The British Courts upheld Swan's patent and claim, forcing Edison, as part of the settlement to name Swan a partner in his British electricity company, the Edison and Swan United Electric Company, later rebranded Ediswan.
Edison returned to the U.S.A. only to find in his absence the U.S. patent office had already ruled that Edison's patents were invalid, because a search in response to the British Court case had revealed they infringed ideas proposed in an earlier patent by William Sawyer. Swan meanwhile sold his U.S. patent rights, in June 1882, to the Brush Electric Company. This chain of events stripped Edison of all patent rights to the incandescent light bulb, and left him with no hope of purchasing any.
The inventor of the first experimental incandescent light-bulb was Warren De la Rue in 1820 who wound a small coil of platinum wire and encapsulated it in a glass envelope from which the air was partially evacuated, this produced a very expensive bulb due to the use of a precious metal filament which lasted up to 5 minutes, depending on the quality of the vacuum achieved. It was not until 1875 and the invention of the mercury vacuum pump that the quality of vacuum necessary to remove all the oxygen was at last achievable and exploited by Swan.
[1] Verdict Retail Survey 2004.
Lighting Timeline:
1809 - Humphrey Davy, an English chemist, invented the first electric light. Davy connected two wires to a battery and attached a charcoal strip between the other ends of the wires. The charged carbon glowed making the first arc lamp.
1820 - Warren De la Rue enclosed a platinum coil in an evacuated tube and passed an electric current through it. His experimental lamp design worked for a short while, showing the potential of the design, but the cost of the precious metal platinum and difficulties evacuating the tube made this an impossible invention for widespread use.
1835 - James Bowman Lindsay demonstrated constant electric lighting system using a prototype light bulb.
1850 - Edward Sheppard invented an electrical incandescent arc lamp using a charcoal filament. Joseph Wilson Swan started working with carbonized paper filaments in the same year.
1854 - Henrich Globel, a German watchmaker, invented the first low production cost light bulb. He used a carbonized bamboo filament placed inside a glass bulb, but because only a partial vacuum was achieved, the filament glowed red, any attempt at incandescence and the residual oxygen immediately destroyed the fragile filament.
1875 - Herman Sprengel invented the mercury vacuum pump making it possible to develop a practical electric light-bulb. Making a good vacuum inside the bulb possible. Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans patented an inert gas filled incandescent light bulb in the same year.
1878 - Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914), an English physicist, was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electric light-bulb (13.5 hours). Swan used a carbon thread filament derived from cotton.
1879 - Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours. Edison placed his filament in an oxygen-less bulb. (Edison evolved his designs for the light bulb based on a hybrid of the 1875 patent he purchased from inventors, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans, and the early ideas of Joseph Wilson Swan).
1880 - Edison continued to improve his light bulb until it could last for over 1200 hours using a bamboo-derived filament.
1903 - Willis Whitnew invented a filament that would not make the inside of a light-bulb turn dark. It was a metal-coated carbon filament (a predecessor to the tungsten filament).
1906 - The General Electric Company was the first to patent a method of making tungsten filaments for use in incandescent light bulbs. The filaments were costly.
1910 - William David Coolidge (1873-1975) invented an improved method of making tungsten filaments. The tungsten filament outlasted all other types of filaments and Coolidge made the costs practical.
1925 - The first frosted light bulbs were produced.
1991 - Philips invented a light bulb that lasts 60,000 hours. The bulb uses magnetic induction.
Around 240 million light bulbs were sold each year in the UK. [1]
Incandescent lights work by using electricity to heat a filament until it gets hot enough to glow brilliant white.
Who invented the light bulb?
Those readers, who answered Edison, are wrong. In the past, Thomas Alva Edison was incorrectly credited as having invented the light bulb, largely due to Hollywood pro-American propaganda. He in fact improved on an idea that others had been experimenting with for 50 years, but he did make it a commercial success, largely because he also developed a more efficient electrical generator and as a result of this, set up an electricity supply company, selling not only electricity to customers but light-bulbs as well.
Those smug readers, who knew the answer was Swan, are also wrong. Although Joseph Wilson Swan was working on a light bulb long before Edison, he struggled to make the filament incandescent and long lasting, his carbon paper thread filament burnt up quickly because he lacked a vacuum pump powerful enough to evacuate the oxygen from the tube sufficiently. It was not until 1878 that he was able to demonstrate to an audience in Newcastle, a true incandescent lamp able to last about 13.5 hours and was granted a UK patent for the bulb in the same year, he was not, however the first.
In fact, Canadians Henry Woodward (medical electrician) and Matthew Evans (hotelier) from Toronto patented the first incandescent light bulb in 1874. They demonstrated their first incandescent lamp with a shaped carbon rod 'filament' held between electrodes in a glass bulb, and uniquely, filled with the inert gas nitrogen, thus by-passing the vacuum problems experienced by Swan and Edison, Woodward and Evans, however, could not raise the money to exploit it.
Edison, who had read about Swan's preliminary designs in an article published in 'Scientific American' magazine years earlier, had begun experimenting with this idea himself and immediately saw the commercial potential. He bought the U.S. patent rights from the Canadians, and by 1880, he had produced a 16 Watt bulb that could last for 1,500 hours and began to market it with great success.
Swan, however, was resentful; privately believing Edison was a plagiarist. When Edison started selling bulbs in the British Empire, lining his pockets with money made from, as Swan saw it, his invention. Swan felt forced to act, taking Edison to Court for patent infringement. The British Courts upheld Swan's patent and claim, forcing Edison, as part of the settlement to name Swan a partner in his British electricity company, the Edison and Swan United Electric Company, later rebranded Ediswan.
Edison returned to the U.S.A. only to find in his absence the U.S. patent office had already ruled that Edison's patents were invalid, because a search in response to the British Court case had revealed they infringed ideas proposed in an earlier patent by William Sawyer. Swan meanwhile sold his U.S. patent rights, in June 1882, to the Brush Electric Company. This chain of events stripped Edison of all patent rights to the incandescent light bulb, and left him with no hope of purchasing any.
The inventor of the first experimental incandescent light-bulb was Warren De la Rue in 1820 who wound a small coil of platinum wire and encapsulated it in a glass envelope from which the air was partially evacuated, this produced a very expensive bulb due to the use of a precious metal filament which lasted up to 5 minutes, depending on the quality of the vacuum achieved. It was not until 1875 and the invention of the mercury vacuum pump that the quality of vacuum necessary to remove all the oxygen was at last achievable and exploited by Swan.
[1] Verdict Retail Survey 2004.
Lighting Timeline:
1809 - Humphrey Davy, an English chemist, invented the first electric light. Davy connected two wires to a battery and attached a charcoal strip between the other ends of the wires. The charged carbon glowed making the first arc lamp.
1820 - Warren De la Rue enclosed a platinum coil in an evacuated tube and passed an electric current through it. His experimental lamp design worked for a short while, showing the potential of the design, but the cost of the precious metal platinum and difficulties evacuating the tube made this an impossible invention for widespread use.
1835 - James Bowman Lindsay demonstrated constant electric lighting system using a prototype light bulb.
1850 - Edward Sheppard invented an electrical incandescent arc lamp using a charcoal filament. Joseph Wilson Swan started working with carbonized paper filaments in the same year.
1854 - Henrich Globel, a German watchmaker, invented the first low production cost light bulb. He used a carbonized bamboo filament placed inside a glass bulb, but because only a partial vacuum was achieved, the filament glowed red, any attempt at incandescence and the residual oxygen immediately destroyed the fragile filament.
1875 - Herman Sprengel invented the mercury vacuum pump making it possible to develop a practical electric light-bulb. Making a good vacuum inside the bulb possible. Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans patented an inert gas filled incandescent light bulb in the same year.
1878 - Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914), an English physicist, was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electric light-bulb (13.5 hours). Swan used a carbon thread filament derived from cotton.
1879 - Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours. Edison placed his filament in an oxygen-less bulb. (Edison evolved his designs for the light bulb based on a hybrid of the 1875 patent he purchased from inventors, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans, and the early ideas of Joseph Wilson Swan).
1880 - Edison continued to improve his light bulb until it could last for over 1200 hours using a bamboo-derived filament.
1903 - Willis Whitnew invented a filament that would not make the inside of a light-bulb turn dark. It was a metal-coated carbon filament (a predecessor to the tungsten filament).
1906 - The General Electric Company was the first to patent a method of making tungsten filaments for use in incandescent light bulbs. The filaments were costly.
1910 - William David Coolidge (1873-1975) invented an improved method of making tungsten filaments. The tungsten filament outlasted all other types of filaments and Coolidge made the costs practical.
1925 - The first frosted light bulbs were produced.
1991 - Philips invented a light bulb that lasts 60,000 hours. The bulb uses magnetic induction.
