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.
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.
A comment received by Krystel has a great reference to the history of the light bulb. It can be found here.
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