Edison Did Not Invent Light Bulb!

[[email protected]]

Relieved they could get the history straight:

"Although American inventor Thomas Edison is widely credited as being the person who invented the light bulb, he actually improved upon previous inventions to create the first commercially efficient, widely used light bulb. The creation of the light bulb is thought to have begun in 1800 with Italianinventor Alessandro Volta’s invention of the voltaic wire, which provided the first electrical current. That same year, English scientist Humphrey Davy created the first electric light. Throughout the next several decades,it is estimated that as many as 20 inventors worked on inventing a long-lasting incandescent light bulb. In 1879, Edison became the first to succeed.His bulb could burn for about 1,500 hours, compared with previous versionsthat lasted only minutes."

 

[Robert Macy]

Relieved they could get the history straight:

"Although American inventor Thomas Edison is widely credited as being theperson who invented the light bulb, he actually improved upon previous inventions to create the first commercially efficient, widely used light bulb.The creation of the light bulb is thought to have begun in 1800 with Italian inventor Alessandro Volta’s invention of the voltaic wire, which provided the first electrical current. That same year, English scientist Humphrey Davy created the first electric light. Throughout the next several decades, it is estimated that as many as 20 inventors worked on inventing a long-lasting incandescent light bulb. In 1879, Edison became the first to succeed. His bulb could burn for about 1,500 hours, compared with previous versions that lasted only minutes."

interesting, I had heard he also invented the electric chair as an
attempt to discredit Tesla. And, the first three users were horribly
burned to death in an excruciating roasting effects.

 

[[email protected]]

That sounds like invention to me. Just saying you want to strap some
wings on a bus and fly to the moon isn't the same as doing it.

interesting, I had heard he also invented the electric chair as an
attempt to discredit Tesla. And, the first three users were horribly
burned to death in an excruciating roasting effects.

Is an execution cruel and unusual if it includes bar-b-que sauce?

 

[rickman]

That sounds like invention to me. Just saying you want to strap some
wings on a bus and fly to the moon isn't the same as doing it.

So you would say that Bardeen and Brattain didn't invent the transistor
since they were both not the first to come up with the idea *and* their
initial invention was hardly practical?

 

[[email protected]]

So you would say that Bardeen and Brattain didn't invent the transistor
since they were both not the first to come up with the idea *and* their
initial invention was hardly practical?

No, I wouldn't. Their thing worked.

What's more, they documented it (and its principles) well enough that
other people could duplicate, advance, and improve it. Davy's
whatever didn't do that--that took 78 additional years of intense,
diligent, novel experimentation and research.

 

[rickman]

Used to be "reduction to practice" was the key. NOW, I'm fighting a
patent scammer who patented a block diagram :-(

Hmmm... any particular block diagram, or just the concept of block
diagrams? I've got one on my white board I think I'm going to erase. I
don't need any lawsuits!

 

[rickman]

Basically, without divulging the client, patent scammer patented a
block diagram, call it a "car", it can go forward and backward and has
brakes and can turn... but absolutely nothing about how to build the
car. My client _built_ the "car" and now is being sued for infringing
the scammer's patent. We go to trial in November.

...Jim Thompson

Correct me if I am wrong, but to get a patent you have to actually say
how to build the thing, no? Even if it is as little as saying, a car
with a motor and brakes, etc. How did the patent ever get granted with
no description of how to build it?

 

[Bill Sloman]

Relieved they could get the history straight:



"Although American inventor Thomas Edison is widely credited as being theperson who invented the light bulb, he actually improved upon previous inventions to create the first commercially efficient, widely used light bulb.The creation of the light bulb is thought to have begun in 1800 with Italian inventor Alessandro Volta’s invention of the voltaic wire, which provided the first electrical current. That same year, English scientist Humphrey Davy created the first electric light. Throughout the next several decades, it is estimated that as many as 20 inventors worked on inventing a long-lasting incandescent light bulb. In 1879, Edison became the first to succeed. His bulb could burn for about 1,500 hours, compared with previous versions that lasted only minutes."

Humphrey Davy invented the carbon arc lamp, which isn't anything like a light bulb, since the carbon rods get chewed up rather rapidly. It was a useful light source, if you needed a very bright light and had enough money to pay somebody to look after it while it was burning and didn't need to keep it burning for longer than it took to chew through a carbon rod, which wasn't much longer than an hour or so.

The true inventor of the incandescent light bulb was Joseph Swan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan

Edison basically commercialised Swan's product in the USA, and gave Swan enough money to persuade him to ignore Edison's campaign of Larkinesque self-aggrandisement in the USA.

 

[Robert Macy]

Used to be "reduction to practice" was the key.  NOW, I'm fighting a
patent scammer who patented a block diagram :-(

                                        ...Jim Thompson
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I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

A group of predatory lawyers founded back east wanted me to review
patents offering tips and suggestions of applications and directions
the tehcnology would go. Sounded like an ideal job, BUT NOT! when you
consider their end goal was to use the patent process to understand
the inventor's intent and get to his next step BEFORE him! to
literally 'box' the inventor in and force him to make payments and
concessions. I RAN from that group. Kind of left me with a bitter
taste for patents and telling everybody what you're doing.

 

[Robert Baer]

Used to be "reduction to practice" was the key. NOW, I'm fighting a
patent scammer who patented a block diagram :-(

...Jim Thompson

Q&D attack:
Check the wording of the independent claim(s) - prolly no more that 2
at most.
See if at least one of them conceivably covers toy blocks that kids
use..note "toy" or "toy block" or variants is not necessary for that link.
Now, given the link, that claim becomes dead.

Not so quick - find older (eg: previous) patents in similar fields
that describe the block concept in their claim(s).
The closer the field where this interference is found, the better the
argument against their claim(s).

 

[Martin Brown]

Relieved they could get the history straight:

"Although American inventor Thomas Edison is widely credited as being the person who invented the light bulb, he actually improved upon previous inventions to create the first commercially efficient, widely used light bulb. The creation of the light bulb is thought to have begun in 1800 with Italian inventor Alessandro Volta’s invention of the voltaic wire, which provided the first electrical current. That same year, English scientist Humphrey Davy created the first electric light. Throughout the next several decades, it is estimated that as many as 20 inventors worked on inventing a long-lasting incandescent light bulb. In 1879, Edison became the first to succeed. His bulb could burn for about 1,500 hours, compared with previous versions that lasted only minutes."

ITYM Edison is widely credited in American rewritten history with
inventing the light bulb and exploiting US corrupt patent practices to
steal the market from Swann who actually invented, patented and
demonstrated working light bulbs in the UK with priority.

His light bulb "invention" was a straight ripoff copy of Swann's
original patented carbon filament electric bulb. See for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan

Edison was a far better self publicist and so the fact that Swann
invented it is now largely forgotten - particularly in America.

 

[Martin Brown]

That sounds like invention to me. Just saying you want to strap some
wings on a bus and fly to the moon isn't the same as doing it.

It isn't true invention when you thieve the design from someone else who
hasn't bothered to get an American patent in time. Swann invented the
carbon filament electric light bulb and Edison copied it patented it for
himself in the USA and trumpeted "his" invention to the rooftops.

See:
http://www.commercial-lamps.co.uk/p/resources/lighting-history/sir-joseph-wilson-swan

and

http://www.archives.gov/historical-...n's Patent Application for the Light Bulb

And a more balanced view from University of Aberdeen complete with
photos of original demonstration and commercial bulbs.

http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/npmuseum/selected.php?id=40

 

[Klaus Bahner]

interesting, I had heard he also invented the electric chair as an
attempt to discredit Tesla. And, the first three users were horribly

Not to discredit Tesla, but Westinghouse. Look up "Current Wars".
This being said, he also treated Tesla badly. Which allegedly was one of
the reasons why Tesla chose to work for/with Westinghouse.

Klaus

 

[[email protected]]

It isn't true invention when you thieve the design from someone else who
hasn't bothered to get an American patent in time. Swann invented the
carbon filament electric light bulb and Edison copied it patented it for
himself in the USA and trumpeted "his" invention to the rooftops.

See:http://www.commercial-lamps.co.uk/p/resources/lighting-history/sir-jo....

Speaking of thieving, either that page was plagiarized from Wikipedia,
or vice versa.

and

http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=11&title.ra....

In typical for-dummies fashion, that only had the preferred figure,
with no text (specification). USPTO's not coughing up the original
images right now, and Google didn't have it either.

In most cases of these supposed patent outrages I've looked into there
were perfectly reasonable technical explanations not appreciated by
the huddled masses, such as the "outrage" patent patenting some very
reasonable, specific, limited, novel feature, composition, or process.

Without the particulars, I don't have a basis for thinking one way or
the other. Anyway, in revised history ISTM we should revile Swan for
all the carbon he caused to be emitted, and recognize him as the man
who destroyed Earth, nature, and civilization.

 

[[email protected]]

Humphrey Davy invented the carbon arc lamp, which isn't anything like a light bulb, since the carbon rods get chewed up rather rapidly. It was a useful light source, if you needed a very bright light and had enough money topay somebody to look after it while it was burning and didn't need to keepit burning for longer than it took to chew through a carbon rod, which wasn't much longer than an hour or so.

The true inventor of the incandescent light bulb was Joseph Swan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan

Edison basically commercialised Swan's product in the USA, and gave Swan enough money to persuade him to ignore Edison's campaign of Larkinesque self-aggrandisement in the USA.

You almost had me up until that final projection. Given that you're
the most avid self-promoter on the group (albeit not the most
successful), it makes me pause and wonder if you got the rest of it
equally backwards.

James Arthur

 

[Robert Macy]

Not to discredit Tesla, but Westinghouse. Look up "Current Wars".
This being said, he also treated Tesla badly. Which allegedly was one of
the reasons why Tesla chose to work for/with Westinghouse.

Klaus

Didn't remember that tidbit. If Edison went after Westinghouse before
Tesla joined it, yes all aimed at Westinghouse. But, if Edison went
after Westinghouse after Tesla joined it, then two birds with one
stone.

 

[Father Haskell]

Relieved they could get the history straight:

"Although American inventor Thomas Edison is widely credited as being theperson who invented the light bulb, he actually improved upon previous inventions to create the first commercially efficient, widely used light bulb.The creation of the light bulb is thought to have begun in 1800 with Italian inventor Alessandro Volta’s invention of the voltaic wire, which provided the first electrical current. That same year, English scientist Humphrey Davy created the first electric light. Throughout the next several decades, it is estimated that as many as 20 inventors worked on inventing a long-lasting incandescent light bulb. In 1879, Edison became the first to succeed. His bulb could burn for about 1,500 hours, compared with previous versions that lasted only minutes."

To his credit, Edison, by his own admission, invented
5,000 ways *not* to make a light bulb.

 

[Bill Sloman]

No, I wouldn't. Their thing worked.

What's more, they documented it (and its principles) well enough that
other people could duplicate, advance, and improve it. Davy's
whatever didn't do that--that took 78 additional years of intense,
diligent, novel experimentation and research.

Davy's carbon arc lamp was well documented and worked, and was widely used within it's niche market - essentially theatre lighting IIRR.

Josehp Swan's carbon filament incandescent lamp was much later, and it tookhim several years of research and experimentation before he had a device that he could manufacture, patent (in the UK) and sell. Edison "invented" his improved version of Swan's original lamp after Swan, and the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company established in 1883 sold filament lamps that exploited Swan's 1881 invention of an extrudable nitro-cellulose fibre to formthe filaments.

 

[[email protected]]

It is my personal opinion that any alien village idiot who makes such
inflammatory statements against the United States should permanently
be denied entry.

Hey, let's not get politically correct[*] censorship here! Martin's
certainly right--whatever Swan did is long forgotten here.

[*] P.C. is when you can't say something that's true, lest someone be
offended. If it's true, it's true.

 

[[email protected]]

Naaaah!  Slowman, working with Moron Brown, invented the light bulb,
but Edison "...exploit(ed) the US corrupt patent practices to
steal the market from (the pair) who actually invented, patented and
demonstrated working light bulbs in the UK with priority" >:-}

You mean Al Gore didn't invent it? (Or was he the hero that saved us
from it?)