Did Thomas Edison really invent the light bulb?

Did Thomas Edison really invent the light bulb?

Edison didn’t ‘invent’ the light bulb, but rather, he improved up a 50-year old idea. Henry Woodward of Toronto, along with Mathew Evans, patented a light bulb in 1875. Unfortunately, the two entrepreneurs could not raise the finance to commercialize their invention. The enterprising American, Thomas Edison, who had been working on the same idea, bought the rights to their patent. Edison had the backing of syndicate of industrial interest with $50, 000 to invest. Using a lower –current, a small carbonized filament, and an improved vacuum inside the globe, Edison successfully demonstrated the light bulb in 1879, and made history. Sir Humphrey Davy of England invented the first electric carbon arc lamp in 1801. A.E. Becquerel of France theorized about the fluorescent lamp in 1857. Sir Joseph Swann of England and Thomas Edison both invented the first electric incandescent lamps around the 1870s.