Light Bulb

Thomas Edison

Throughout the nineteenth century, inventors produced simple electric lights. For example,
Joseph Swan produced a simple electric light, but, he struggled to maintain a power source and the
filament soon burned out when the vacuum was exhausted. It was Thomas Edison who made the light
bulb into a practical low current version. He used a filament based on a burned sewing thread.
In 1878, Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent
lamp and on October 14, 1878, Edison filed his first patent application for "Improvement in Electric
Lights”. However, he continued to test several types of material for metal filaments to improve upon his
original design and by Nov 4, 1879, he filed another U.S. patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon
filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires.”
The electric light, is one of the everyday conveniences that most affects our lives, was not
“invented” in the traditional sense in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison, although he could be said to have
created the first commercially practical incandescent light. He was neither the first nor the only person
trying to invent an incandescent light bulb. In fact, some historians claim there were over 20 inventors of
incandescent lamps prioXr to Edison’s version. However, Edison is often credited with the invention
because his version was able to outstrip the earlier versions because of a combination of three factors: an
effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve and a high resistance
that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.
Thomas Alba Edison’s mastermind guided to this amazing invention that changed the world.
With the electrification of the modern world, the light bulb invented in the year 1879 profoundly changed
human life by illuminating the night. The first electric bulb made it possible for all human lives hospitable
to a wide extent of modern day activities. However, it is assumed that the idea behind the light bulb came
from Humphrey Davy in the 1800, when he invented an electric battery and connected a carbon with
wires which glowed and produced electric arc. Edison improvised the concept of Joseph Wilson Swan
and Charles Francis Brush experimenting with different filaments that could last longer. Edison started
with a 40-hour life light bulb and finally made a bulb that lasted for 1500 hours. The incandescent bulb is
revolutionizing human lives since then.
Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including using
"cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," it was not until several months
after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could
last over 1200 hours. This discovery marked the beginning of commercially manufactured light bulbs and
in 1880, Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Electric Light Company begin marketing its new product.