The man who invented the lightbulb is usually credited with it, but he wasn't the only one who helped develop it.
The development of this technology would not have been possible without the help of these three men.
The story of the lightbulb starts long before the invention of the first bulb. The voltaic pile was the first practical way of generating electricity. The pile was made of alternating discs of zinc and copper that were sandwiched between layers of cardboard soaked in salt water. One of the earliest manifestations of the bulb is the glowing copper wire from Volta.
The Voltaic Pile made it possible for scientists to experiment with electric currents under controlled conditions. After Volta presented his discovery of a continuous source of electricity to the Royal Society in London, Davy produced the world's first electric lamp.
According to " The Life of Sir Humphrey Davy (opens in new tab) ", the electric arcs lamp was named for its bright arcs of light between its two carbon rods.
It wasn't a very practical source of lighting when compared to the stand-alone piles. The lamp was too bright to be used in a home or workspace. John Meurig Thomas wrote in a 2012 lecture that the miners' safety lamp was one of the experiments that led to street lighting in Paris. In the development of many other electric lamps and bulbs, the principles behind the arcs light were used.
Warren de la Rue, a British scientist, was able to develop an efficient lightbulb using coiled platinum, but the high cost of the metal kept it from being a commercial success. The clockwork mechanism that regulated the movement of the quick-to-erode carbon rods was developed by Englishman William Staite. The batteries used to power Staite's lamps were expensive.
In 1850, Joseph Swan, an English chemist, began trying to make electrical light more economical, and by 1860 he had developed a lightbulb that was carbonized paper. In February 1879, Swan demonstrated a lamp in a lecture in England, after receiving a patent in the U.K.
Swan's filaments were placed in a vacuum tube so that they wouldn't get exposed to oxygen. Swan's vacuum pumps weren't very efficient and the prototype wasn't very good for everyday use.
The problem with Swan's design was thefilament. It would be practical to have a lamp that only requires a small amount of current to make it glow. According to the Franklin Institute, he demonstrated his invention in 1879 in New Jersey. Swan started an electrical lighting company in England after incorporating the improvement into his lightbulbs.
CIO says that Swan's patent was a strong claim, at least in the U.K. One of the world's largest manufacturers of lightbulbs was formed when the two inventors joined forces.
According to the DOE, a practical and inexpensive lightbulb was developed by the man. There were more than 3000 designs tested by the team of researchers.
Cotton, linen and wood were listed in the patent for the electric lamp. More than 6,000 plants were tested to see which material would burn the longest for the bulb.
After the 1879 patent was granted, a carbonized bamboo filament could burn for more than a year, according to the Edison Museum. In the late 19th century, bamboo was replaced by longer- lasting materials in the production of the bulb.
What is the longest burning light bulb?
According to Rutgers University, a more efficient way of manufacturing carbon filaments was patented in the late 19th century. In 1903, Whitney invented a treatment that allowed them to burn bright without darkening the inside of their glass bulbs.
William David Coolidge was an American physicist with General Electric. In the late 19th century, it was not possible to make super-fine tungsten wire due to the lack of machinery.
The primary material used in light bulbs is thwirt.
Two people contributed to this article. The article was updated in November.
You can find more about Franklin's invention at the Franklin Institute. In the new tab, you can learn more about Thomas Edison. You can watch a video about how light bulbs work.
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