A Brief History of the Light Bulb

Throughout the nineteenth century, inventors produced simple electric lights. For example, Joseph
Swan produced a simple electric light, but, he struggled to maintain a power source and the filament
soon burned out when the vacuum was exhausted. It was Thomas Edison who made the light bulb
into a practical low current version. He used a filament based on a burned sewing thread.

In 1878, Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp and
on October 14, 1878, Edison filed his first patent application for "Improvement in Electric Lights".
However, he continued to test several types of material for metal filaments to improve upon his
original design and by Nov 4, 1879, he filed another U.S. patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon
filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires."

The electric light, is one of the everyday conveniences that most affects our lives, was not “invented”
in the traditional sense in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison, although he could be said to have created
the first commercially practical incandescent light. He was neither the first nor the only person trying
to invent an incandescent light bulb. In fact, some historians claim there were over 20 inventors of
incandescent lamps prior to Edison’s version. However, Edison is often credited with the invention
because his version was able to outstrip the earlier versions because of a combination of three
factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve and a
high resistance that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.

Thomas Alba Edison’s mastermind guided to this amazing invention that changed the world. With the
electrification of the modern world, the light bulb invented in the year 1879 profoundly changed
human life by illuminating the night. The first electric bulb made it possible for all human lives
hospitable to a wide extent of modern day activities. However, it is assumed that the idea behind the
light bulb came from Humphrey Davy in the 1800, when he invented an electric battery and
connected a carbon with wires which glowed and produced electric arc. Edison improvised the
concept of Joseph Wilson Swan and Charles Francis Brush experimenting with different filaments
that could last longer. Edison started with a 40-hour life light bulb and finally made a bulb that lasted
for 1500 hours. The incandescent bulb is revolutionizing human lives since then.

Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including using "cotton
and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," it was not until several months after
the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could
last over 1200 hours.

This discovery marked the beginning of commercially manufactured light bulbs and in 1880, Thomas
Edison’s company, Edison Electric Light Company begin marketing its new product.

The characteristics of light bulbs are:

 Color Temperature
 Color Rendering
 Foot Candles
 Lumens

Modern incandescent bulbs are not energy efficient – less than 10% of electrical power supplied to
the bulb is converted into visible light. The remaining energy is lost as heat. However these inefficient
light bulbs are still widely used today due to many advantages such as:

 wide, low-cost availability

 easy incorporation into electrical systems
 adaptable for small systems
 low voltage operation, such as in battery powered devices
 wide shape and size availability
Unfortunately for the incandescent bulb, legislation in many countries, including the US, has
mandated phasing it out for more energy-efficient options such as compact fluorescent lamps and
LED lamps. There has been much resistance, however, to these policies owing to the low cost of
incandescent bulbs, the instant availability of light and concerns of mercury contamination with CFLs.