It would be tough to imagine life without the light bulb. We’d be surrounded by darkness without it. We should all be thankful to the person who invented the light bulb for his invention, without it life as we know it could not have come into existence. Do you know who it was?
The History of Light Bulb
Many people fail to realize that Thomas Edison should not be credited as the only inventor of the light bulb. In the year 1800, an Italian inventor by the name Alessandro Volta formulated a method of producing electricity using the voltaic pile. It was made using other discs of zinc and copper which are scattered with layers of cardboard soaked in saltwater. The collection conducted electricity when the copper wire was connected to either end. After introducing his invention to the Royal Society in London, an English scientist, Humphry Davy had produced the world’s first electric lamp by making use of voltaic piles and charcoal electrodes. His invention was known as the electric arc lamp. It shot arc of light between two carbon rods.
An English physicist by the name Joseph Wilson Swan created a light bulb by insertion of carbonized paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb. It had a working prototype by 1860, but, it resulted in a lamp whose life was much too short to be considered an efficient generator of light. In 1870’s better vacuum pumps were accessible, and Swan continued experimenting on light bulbs. In 1878, Swan began development of a longer-lasting light bulb using a treated cotton thread that eliminates the problem of early bulb blackening.
By the 1920s, lights were becoming a household amenity, and Edison was an iconic personality in American society. He was honored for his work during the 50th anniversary of the electric light bulb. It was an unarguable fact that Edison was very forward of his time. He did not invent the light bulb.
