Who really invented the light bulb?

It wasn't Edison! Light bulbs were in use for 50 years prior to Edison's patent. see:
http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/edison.asp
Many inventions contributed to the development of the light bulb as we know it (one invention was the tungsten filament, another was COILING the filament, another was the vacuum bulb, etc). The first patent on the modern incandescent bulb though was by Joseph Swan who successfully sued Edison for patent infringement.

Thomas Edison

Joseph Swan- he received the patent for it in britain almost a year before edison did so in US...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wilson_Swan

Thomas Eddison

humpfry davey great britain earley 1800s

Yes, I do believe it might have been Thomas Edison.. but ...I've heard rumor it might have been Nikolai(sp?) Tesla, too.

Thomas Alva Edison. However, when he got the idea for one, what appeared over his head?

Starting in the early 1800s, inventors looked for ways to convert electricity into light. Sir Humphry Davy, an English physician, successfully passed an electric current through platinum strips in 1801. Unfortunately, the strips evaporated quickly and Davy was unable to create a light that lasted more than a few minutes.

In 1809 Davy created what would become known as the Arc lamp. He made an electrical connection between two charcoal rods connected to a battery. The light from this was very bright but small.

For the next 50 years, others sought ways to lengthen the amount of time the light source would remain. In 1840 Warren de la Rue, a British scientist, placed a platinum coil in a vaccum tube. When he passed an electric current through it, light was formed. This design was efficient and the light lasted longer, but platinum was very expensive which made it impossible to be distributed on a commercial level.

In 1841 Frederick de Moleyns of England was given the first patent for an incandescent lamp. His design used powdered charcoal. He heated this material between two platinum wires in a vacuum bulb.


Joseph Wilson Swan
Joseph Wilson Swan was born in 1828 in England. He worked as a physicist and chemist. Swan wanted to produce a practical, long-lasting light source. He used a carbon paper filament in his light bulbs. In 1878 he received a British patent for his light bulb. Swan began placing light bulbs in homes throughout England. By the early 1880s he had started his own light bulb company.

Thomas Edison
While Swan worked in England, Thomas Edison was busy in the United States. He experimented with thousands of different filaments. His goal was to find materials that would light well and last for a long time. He brought in various metals and supplies from all over the world.

Then in October of 1879, Edison had a breakthrough. He carbonized a piece of sewing thread. Using this as a filament, he was able to produce a light bulb that burned for thirteen and a half hours. By bending the filament, he could make the lamp burn for over 100 hours. Eventually Edison invented a bulb that could glow for more than 1200 hours. He received a patent in 1880 for his light bulb. It had the same features of today's modern light bulbs: an incandescent filament in a glass bulb with a screw base.

The Real Inventor of the Light Bulb
When the question is asked, who invented the light bulb, Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison are usually given credit. However, both of these men worked off of previous inventions. Historians estimate that over twenty inventors worked toward the creation and design of the light bulb. Of these, Edison's version was the most efficient.

When studying who invented the light bulb, it is appropriate to credit numerous inventors that lived during the 1800s. Even after Swan and Edison, others continued to improve the light source. The light bulb, as we know it today, is a result of much time and effort. Remember that the next time you flip on the switch!

go canadians!!!!

well acually thats false Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans both canadian invented the light bulb.On July 24, 1874, he and his partner, Mathew Evans, a hotelkeeper, patented an improved electric light bulb.[1][2] Woodward was a medical student at the time. Their light bulb comprised a glass tube with a carbon filament. They purged the tube with inert nitrogen to get a longer burn life in the filament. Their light bulb was sufficiently promising; they were able to sell their U.S. Patent 181,613 to Thomas Edison. [citation needed] Thomas Edison also obtained an exclusive license to the Canadian patent. Thomas Edison raised investment capital to continue improvements in the bulb until he had a light bulb with long enough life to be commercially successful.

Here is a history of the light bulb.
Milestones:
1850 Joseph W. Swan began working on a light bulb using carbonized paper filaments
1860 Swan obtained a UK patent covering a partial vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp
1877 Edward Weston forms Weston Dynamo Machine Company, in Newark, New Jersey.
1878 Thomas Edison founded the Edison Electric Light Company
1878 Hiram Maxim founded the United States Electric Lighting Company
1878 205,144 William Sawyer and Albon Man 6/18 for Improvements in Electric Lamps
1878 Swan receives a UK patent for an improved incandescent lamp in a vacuum tube
1879 Swan began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England.
1880 223,898 Thomas Edison 1/27 for Electric Lamp and Manufacturing Process
1880 230,309 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Process of Manufacturing Carbon Conductors
1880 230,310 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Electrical Lamp
1880 230,953 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Electrical Lamp
1880 233,445 Joseph Swan 10/19 for Electric Lamp
1880 234,345 Joseph Swan 11/9 for Electric Lamp
1880 Weston Dynamo Machine Company renamed Weston Electric Lighting Company
1880 Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston form American Electric Company
1880 Charles F. Brush forms the Brush Electric Company
1881 Joseph W. Swan founded the Swan Electric Light Company
1881 237,198 Hiram Maxim 2/1 for Electrical Lamp assigned to U.S. Electric Lighting Company
1881 238,868 Thomas Edison 3/15 for Manufacture of Carbons for Incandescent Lamps
1881 247,097 Joseph Nichols and Lewis Latimer 9/13 for Electric Lamp
1881 251, 540 Thomas Edison 12/27 for Bamboo Carbons Filament for Incandescent Lamps
1882 252,386 Lewis Latimer 1/17 for Process of Manufacturing Carbons assigned to U.S. E. L. Co.
1882 Edison's UK operation merged with Swan to form the Edison & Swan United Co. or "Edi-swan"
1882 Joesph Swan sold his United States patent rights to the Brush Electric Company
1883 American Electric Company renamed Thomson-Houston Electric Company
1884 Sawyer & Man Electric Co formed by Albon Man a year after William Edward Sawyer death
1886 George Westinghouse formed the Westinghouse Electric Company
1886 The National Carbon Co. was founded by the then Brush Electric Co. executive W. H. Lawrence
1888 United States Electric Lighting Co. was purchased by Westinghouse Electric Company
1886 Sawyer & Man Electric Co. was purchased by Thomson-Houston Electric Company
1889 Brush Electric Company merged into the Thomson-Houston Electric Company
1889 Edison Electric Light Company consolidated and renamed Edison General Electric Company.
1890 Edison, Thomson-Houston, and Westinghouse, the "Big 3" of the American lighting industry.
1892 Edison Electric Light Co. and Thomson-Houston Electric Co. created General Electric Co.
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Joe the Glass Blower with help from Fred the Filament Fabricator.

Chuck Norris

It may sound funny but Edison was trying to invent the light bulb and came close to inventing the vacuum tube and the man who was trying to invent the vacuum tube invented the light bulb (sorry memory laps I can't think of his name right now) But Edison received the credit.

This is also true about the airplane: Jacob Broadbeck was the first to fly a powered controlable aircraft while the Wright Brothers were still in diapers.

The invention of the light bulb is sometimes attributed to Thomas Alva Edison, who made contributions to its development and marketing, but today it is well-known that Heinrich Göbel built functional bulbs three decades earlier. Many others also contributed to the development of a truly practical device for the production of electrically generated lighting.

Heinrich Göbel (April 20, 1818 - December 4, 1893), born in Germany, was an inventor, an early pioneer who did much work on developing the light bulb. In 1844, he married Sophie Lübke. At the age of 31, he emigrated to New York City, USA, where he lived until his death. Göbel is felt by some to have developed the first practical bulb in 1854. His lamp lasted for up to 400 hours.