Who invented the light bulb?
Thomas Edison is usually credited with inventing the first practical, long-lasting light bulb in 1879. Joseph Swan in England developed a similar bulb around the same time, and many others had worked on electric lights before them.
Electric light had been demonstrated decades earlier. In the early 1800s, Humphry Davy showed an arc lamp, and several inventors made bulbs that glowed briefly. The challenge was making a filament that lasted long and was affordable. In 1879, Edison's team tested thousands of materials and created a carbon filament bulb that lasted many hours.
In Britain, Joseph Swan demonstrated a working light bulb in 1878 and 1879 and lit his home with electric light. After a patent dispute, Edison and Swan combined their companies in Britain as Ediswan. Edison's major contribution was building a whole electrical system, including power stations, wiring and meters.
Modern lighting
Edison opened the Pearl Street Station in New York in 1882, one of the first central power plants. Incandescent bulbs, which waste most of their energy as heat, have largely been replaced by energy-efficient LED bulbs, which can last 25 times longer.
Did You Know?
A light bulb in a fire station in Livermore, California, known as the Centennial Light, has been burning almost continuously since 1901.