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A Bright Idea, but not all Edison's idea!

12/4/2011

2 Comments

 
Picture
It is often said that most ideas are built on the shoulders of others. The history of the incandescent light bulb is a perfect example of that thought. Perhaps it all started with Sir Humphrey Davy, or even earlier, but no one can argue the fact that the light bulb has been a successful product. It is surprising that it lasted as long as it did considering that it gives off more heat than light. And although Edison had a patent on a light bulb, there was a previous patent that Edison bought for a reported $50,000. It was an incandescent light bulb invented by Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans and was essentially the same invention. But the argument has always been that Edison patented the first  successful bulb. It was all in the resistive filament and inert gas that allowed the Edison bulb to be unique.

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This is the drawing on the patent from Woodward and it does not look like the familiar bulb that we all know and have replaced with compact fluorescent bulbs. But, it had the important features of a resistive element being a filament, and current causing the element to heat up and give off light. One big difference is that Woodward filled the tube with nitrogen. But, the real change came with the improvement of the carbon filament when tungsten was used as the resistive element. See some history here. Let there be light and a lot of heat...
A comment received by Krystel has a great reference to the history of the light bulb. It can be found here.

2 Comments
Krystel link
2/25/2014 05:13:38 am

Great post! It definitely was not all Edison. I found an article taking a look into how inventing the light bulb revolutionized our lives, landscape and economy. I really recommend reading it because light bulbs have such a great history and it involved more than one person. Here there link: <a href="http://www.delmarfans.com/educate/basics/who-invented-light-bulbs/" title="History of the Light Bulb ">Learn About the History of Light Bulbs</a>

Reply
Ken
2/25/2014 07:34:17 am

Hi Krystel,
Although I typically do not include comments that are posted by marketing and advertising professionals, this article is a great history. And, reader's of mine recognize that I am not endorsing any particular product. Thanks for the comment and I have added the link in the main post with credit to you. Ken.

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