Joseph Swan

Joseph Swan was a British physicist and chemist who developed a working incandescent electric light bulb independently of, and slightly before, Thomas Edison's own famous version. He demonstrated a carbon filament lamp to a meeting of the Newcastle Chemical Society in February 1879, and patented his design in Britain, where he held priority over Edison's later American patent. Rather than fight a prolonged legal battle, Swan and Edison merged their competing British lighting interests in 1883 to form the Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company, generally known as Ediswan. Swan's own home in Low Fell is often cited as one of the first in the world to be lit by incandescent light bulbs.