When Was The Light Bulb Invented?

The light bulb was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in 1879 by improving upon existing designs to construct a model that could last for about 40 hours. Though he is not the first person to conceive the idea of an electric light bulb his work in making the bulb a practical invention marks him as a central figure in the light bulb development process.

He not only succeeded in creating a bulb which could last for about 1200 hours (1880) but also worked to market the bulb as a mass produced commodity; he started a number of Electric Companies for research and production in this field.

In 1800 Humphrey Davy managed to make a piece of carbon glow by attaching wires and then connecting them to a battery, which he had earlier invented. This work was carried forward by the English physicist Joseph Swan (1860) and the American scientist Charles Brush (1877).

In 1878 Edison began his work of trying out different filaments which could glow for a longer period without burning out, finally succeeding with a carbonized cotton filament. He later improved it by using a bamboo filament in an evacuated bulb which glowed for 1200 hours; later in 1910 William Coolidge came up with the idea of using a tungsten filament.

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