History and Time Line of a Light Bulb
- Humphry Davy (1802) invented the first bulb known as the Electric Arc Lamp, but it was too bright for practical use.
- Warren De La Rue (1840) used a platinum filament in a vacuum tube to create a bulb, which was a brilliant design. The cost of platinum made it impractical for use.
- Joseph Wilson Swan created a light bulb prototype in 1850, using which he developed a long lasting bulb by 1878. It used a treated cotton thread as the filament. But it failed the process of commercialization.
- Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans (1874), filed a Canadian patent as they built light bulbs of various shapes and sizes of carbon filaments in Nitrogen filled cylinders. A failed commercialization caused them to sell their patent to Edison in 1879.
- Thomas Edison started research for developing a practical incandescent bulb in 1878. The discovery of a carbonized bamboo filament lasting for over 1200 hours led to the commercialization of light bulbs in 1880 by the Edison Electric Light Company.
- Hungarian Sándor Just and Croatian Franjo Hanaman (1904) got a Hungarian Patent for tungsten filament lamps. They lasted longer than any other lamps and were brighter than a carbon filament lamp. They were marketed by the company Tungsgram.