By October 1879 Thomas Edison and his Menlo Park team had a lamp whose carbonized cotton-thread filament burned for fourteen and a half hours, and from 1879 he patented and commercialized the incandescent bulb. He was not the first to make one: William Sawyer, Albon Man and Joseph Swan all held earlier incandescent patents. What Edison delivered was the practical, long-lived lamp and, with it, the demand for central generation that called the power station into being.
Facts
Milestone Year Milestone Date LocationMenlo Park, New Jersey, United States 1 Connections
Associated With
Source United States Department of Energy Official Site
Credited To
Source United States Department of Energy Official Site
Sources
1. United States Department of Energy Official Site
US Department of EnergyThe History of the Light Bulb, Incandescent Bulbs Light the WayQuote, The History of the Light Bulb, Incandescent Bulbs Light the Way
When Edison and his researchers at Menlo Park came onto the lighting scene, they focused on improving the filament
2. Wikipedia: Incandescent Light Bulb
Incandescent light bulb, Edison carbon-filament lamp testQuote, Incandescent light bulb, Edison carbon-filament lamp test
The first successful test was on 22 October 1879, and lasted 13.5 hours.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
Joseph Swan developed his own incandescent carbon lamp independently, publicly demonstrating it at Newcastle upon Tyne on 18 December 1878, before Edison's October 1879 test. Swan's strong British patents led the two rival companies to merge in 1883 as the Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company rather than have either side's priority claim stand alone.
A dissenting reading, from Joseph SwanWikipedia: Joseph Swan
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