The invention of the lightbulb was not the sole work of American inventor Thomas Edison. Inventions, engineers, and scientists from around the world are credited with the creation of electric batteries, lamps, and the first incandescent bulbs.
The part in history of the technology played by the names of Alessandro Volta, Humphrey Davy and Joseph Swan is more significant than the first names. We will shed a little light on the real history below.
Early research and development.
The story of the lightbulb begins long before the invention of the first commercially successful bulb. The voltaic pile was the first practical method of generating electricity. When a copper wire was connected to either end, the pile conducted electricity because of the alternating discs of zinc and copper. One of the earliest manifestations of incandescent lighting was the glowing copper wire from Volta.
The Voltaic Pile made it possible for scientists to experiment with electric currents under controlled conditions, according to Harold H Schobert. The world's first electric lamp was created by connecting voltaic piles to charcoal electrodes, after Volta presented his discovery of a continuous source of electricity to the Royal Society in London.
Aryton Paris describes Sir Humphrey Davy as a hugely influential chemist, inventor and public lecturer who is recognized as one of the first professional scientists. The electric arcs lamp was named after the bright arcs of light that came from the two carbon rods.
Humphry was working on an experiment with alkalis.
It wasn't a very practical source of lighting when compared to the stand-alone piles. The lamp was too bright for use in a home or workspace. John Meurig Thomas wrote in a 2012 lecture that the miners' safety lamp and street lighting in Paris were the result of Davy's other experiments with lighting. Electric lamps and bulbs were developed using the principles of the Davy's arcs light.
Warren de la Rue, a British scientist, developed an efficient lightbulb using coiled platinum instead of copper, but the high cost of the metal kept the bulb from becoming a commercial success. William Staite, an Englishman, developed a clockwork mechanism that regulated the movement of the lamps' quick-to-erode carbon rods in the 19th century. Staite's lamps use batteries that cost a lot, so the inventor's commercial ventures have been put on hold.
Joseph Swan was the opponent of Thomas Edison.
Joseph Swan, an English chemist, tackled the cost-effectiveness problem of previous inventors and by 1860 he had developed a lightbulb that used carbonized paper as the material of choice. In February 1879, Swan demonstrated a working lamp in a lecture in England, after receiving a patent in the UK in 1878.
Swan's filaments were placed in a vacuum tube to minimize their exposure to oxygen, like earlier renditions of the lightbulb. Swan's vacuum pumps of his day were not as efficient as they are now, and while his prototype worked well for a demonstration, it was impractical in actual use.
The problem with Swan's design was thefilament. A lamp made of a thin filament with high electrical resistance would be practical because it would only require a small amount of current to make it glow. He showed off his lightbulb in 1879. Swan founded an electrical lighting company in England after incorporating the improvement into his lightbulbs.
CIO says that Swan's patent was a strong claim in the UK, despite the fact that Edison sued for patent infringement. One of the world's largest manufacturers of lightbulbs was formed by the two inventors.
The illustration shows Thomas Edison with a light bulb.
Swan was not the only competitor. The inventors of the electric lamp filed a patent in 1874 for a glass cylinder filled with nitrogen and different-sized carbon rods. According to the World History Project, the pair tried to sell their lamps to other people but eventually sold their patent to the man.
The success of the lightbulb was followed by the founding of the New York company. Wealthy investors of the time, including J.P. Morgan, contributed to the company. The first electrical generating stations were built by the company. The first generating station opened in lower Manhattan in September of 1882.
According to the DOE, William Sawyer and Albon Man merged their company with that of Thomas Edison to form General Electric.
The first practical lightbulb.
According to the DOE, the practical and inexpensive lightbulb was the one that was developed by Edison. Between 1878 and 1880, more than 3000 designs for bulbs were tested by the team of researchers in the laboratory of the inventor.
According to the National Archives, a patent was filed in 1879 for an electric lamp with a carbon filament. Cotton, linen and wood were listed in the patent as materials that could be used. Over 6,000 plants were tested to determine which material would burn the longest for the new bulb.
After the 1879 patent was granted, a carbonized bamboo filament could burn for more than 1,200 hours, according to the Edison Museum. The bamboo used for the bulb's filaments was replaced by longer- lasting materials in the early 1900s.
What's the longest burning light bulb?
According to Rutgers University, a more efficient way of manufacturing carbon filaments was patented by Lewis Howard Latimer. Whitney invented a treatment for the glass bulbs that allowed them to burn bright without changing their appearance.
A retro style bulb.
General Electric's method of manufacturing tungsten was improved in 1910 by William David Coolidge, an American physicist. In the late 19th century, it was not possible to make super-fine tungsten wire, which was an excellent material for lightbulbs, due to the lack of machinery.
The primary material used in bulb filaments is thwirt.
The lights are led.
The future of lighting is being considered due to a lower energy requirement to run, a lower monthly price tag and a longer life than traditional incandescent lightbulbs.
General Electric said that Nick Holonyak, an American scientist, accidentally invented the red light while trying to create a laser in the early 1960s. The principle that some semiconductors glowed when an electric current was applied had been known since the early 1900s, but Holonyak was the first to patent it for use as a light fixture.
In a few years, yellow and green LEDs were added to the mix and used in several applications. The blue LEDs were created in the early 1990s by Japanese and American scientists, who won the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics. Scientists were able to create white LEDs by coating the diodes with phosphor.
Lightbulbs are Incandescent, Fluorescent, and LED.
People can choose from a variety of lightbulbs, including compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs that work by heating a gas that produces ultraviolet light.
Several lighting companies are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with lightbulbs. Several companies have created wireless lightbulbs that can be controlled with a mobile device. The smart phone can be used to program thePhillips Hue, which uses light-colored technology that can be turned on or off by a flick. The higher-end Hue lightbulbs can be set to a large range of colors and can be used with music, movies, and video games.
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Rachel Ross and Callum McKelvie contributed to the article.
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