Thomas A. Edison Was Not The Only Man Who Invented The Light Bulb
Mahal al (2017, 1p) argues that “Thomas A. Edison is the man that invented the light bulb”. Although this is not false but it is not entirely true. He may be the man who got the light bulb to work for a long time without burning out, according to BBC history there are actually twenty two inventers who contributed in the invention of the light bulb.
Inventors like Sir Humphry Davy were one of those inventors who imagined a world with incandescent light, born on the 17th of December 1778. Sir Humphry Davy was well known for he’s work as a chemist, and was even awarded the Copley medal for his work (The Age of Edison, 2014, 62). Sir Humphry became more famous in 1801 when he made the light bulb, which is widely known as the Davy lamp. According to ThoughtCo American History Sir Humphry Davy is considered the first man to invent the electric light bulb.
J.S Kennely (1896, 18) says Sir Humphry Davy discovered that, “when electric current flows through a wire, the resistance caused them to heat up to a point where they gave out light.” And so Sir Humphry Davy went to work and created the Davy lamp. He connected two wires and a battery, he than attached it to a charcoal strip. When current passed through the ends of the strips there was light. It is amazing how this discovery was a turning point of how we looked at light itself. The creation of the Davy lamp was a start of something extraordinary, although Sir Humphry’s lamp did not work for a long, since the strips evaporated too quickly and that made his lamp hard to use and impractical for everyday use. Thomas Edison once said,” that negative results are just as important.” With the failure of Sir Humphry’s invention, a key problem about the incandescent light bulb was identified. Finding a filament that lasted a long time and did not burn out as quickly.
Although there were other inventors that tried to modernise Sir Humphry’s invention, not even one of them stood them stood out like Frederick de Moleyns. Frederick made a very prominent discovery in 1841, the vacuum. Many inventors where unable to pin point what actually caused the lamp to burn out so quickly. That is why the vacuum was such a brilliant discovery. Frederick de Moleyns found out that the air inside the light bulb reacted with the filament, this caused a by-product build up. The vacuum got rid of the air inside and hence the light bulb lasted for a much longer time and did not burn out as quickly.
Additionally, Frederick de Moleyns was the first to be granted the patent for the incandescent light bulb. Being granted a patent meant that he was given exclusive right to the invention. This basically stakes claim ownership to he’s invention, that it could not be, “commercially made, used, distributed, imported, or sold by others without the owner’s patent consent.” Frederick de Moleyn’s invention used platinum wire which made it hard for it to be commercially viable. Mass production for the product would also be very expensive because of the platinum wire. However, shortly after Frederick de moleyn’s design. Joseph Wilson Swan began working on he’s own invention of the light bulb in 1850. Joseph Swan used carbonised filaments instead of charcoal. He then tried to get a patent for his invention but was not granted, since his design had very poor vacuum and very little electric source. This made his invention to be inefficient and the light bulb to have a very short life span. But, Joseph Wilson swan did not throw in the towel, he instead went back and improved his design. In 1875 he presented his work, it had a better vacuum and used a carbonised thread as a filament. As Rebecca Matulaka and Deniel Wood (2013) write, “ What made his invention stead out amongst the rest is that it had very little residual oxygen in its vacuum tube, this made his light bulb to glow brighter. However, his filament had very low resistance this meant that it needed heavy copper wire to supply it.”
In the meanwhile, Thomas A. Edison and his team were working on their own modernisation of the incandescent light bulb. They were trying to find a filament that lasted a long time and did not burn out easily. It is said that Thomas Edison tried out 2000 different filaments before he found the one that solved all of their problems. Thomas Edison absent carelessly tried the bamboo fibre filament. And to he’s own surprise after thousands of failed attempts. The bamboo fibre burnt for 1200 hours straight. The longest time ever recorded.
Equally important, Thomas Edison had to convince the world that the incandescent light bulb could be the next way of life. Most could not imagine a world without oil lamps and candles, for someone to propose that there was an invention that was less messy, cheaper and a lot more practical. It was simply unheard off in most corners of the world.
Despite this controversy about the incandescent light bulb. Thomas A. Edison took a brave step in 1879 and decided to showcase his perfected incandescent light bulb to the world. Most people simply could not believe their eyes. The invention of this light bulb showed that a new age of modernisation was at the door step, people were excited to witness such a spectacular wonder.
There were numerous things that made Edison’s invention of the light bulb stand out the way it did. Thomas Edison was able to perfect the incandescent light bulb, by getting all three things other previous inventors got wrong. Firstly, He was able to find an effective incandescent material that did not burn out like the rest, plus it lasted for very long time. Secondly, he provided a much higher vacuum than any other inventor was able to achieve. Thirdly, he got the high resistance that made power distribution from centralised source economically viable.
Moreover, Thomas Edison was more of a businessman then an inventor. He wanted his invention to be able to undergo mass production and for the cost of production to be as cheap as possible. As much as it is not easy to push something new into the market. A few businessmen who believed in Thomas Edison backed him up. In 1880 Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Electric Light company started marketing its new products, Said Graeme Gooday (2008). A year later Thomas Edison left the company and went to build facilities in several cities that world be able to install electric systems.
