Who invented light bulb?

The first light bulb was invented in 1809 by Sir Humphry Davy. He started working on his project in 1801. He ran electric current through two platinum rods which could not stay for long. He then changed to charcoal rods, they too were not of much help as the light produced was intense and utilized a lot of power. These were called arc lamps and were used in lighthouses, search lights and industrial plants.

Most people know Thomas Edison as the inventor of the light bulb. He was the one who worked for improving the light bulb. Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor, scientist and a businessman who invented the first practical bulb. He got the patent for his invention in 1879 in U. S. But records tell us that Joseph Swan, a British inventor got his invention for the same patented a year prior to Edison in Britain. Joseph Swan was the one to make his invention public 10 years prior to Edison’s. He too started his power company like Edison. The idea of using high- resistant filament which he used was Edison’s. So Edison sued him for the same. At last they resolved and joined hands to form the biggest company for producing light bulbs in the world called Edison- Swan United.

It really surprises that world’s famous inventor Edison, born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio did not performed well in school. He was send back home and his mother taught him. He worked as a newspaper boy, a telegrapher but a self- taught boy soon became an inventor.