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Who invented the lightbulb?

theness.com

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Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#11

Post by Joker_vD »

m-i-l wrote: post #9

If questions like this become political within a US-specific persepctive, they can have an element of nationalism when considered with a more global perspective. Many people in the UK know the story of UK-based Joseph Swan developing his own bulb, patenting it, setting up a company and selling it, supplying homes and businesses such as The Savoy, and then a US marketer called Edison later coming along and taking cred…

Of course. For example, everyone knows that Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin invented and applied for the patent on carbon-filament bulb in 1872, was granted it in 1874 and in that same year founded Electric Lighting Company. Then there were some Tzarist repressions, he emigrated in the US, patented tungsten filament in 1893 (US Patent No. 575,002), sold it to GE, returned to Russia in 1907, in 1917 emigrated to the US again, and died in 1923 in Brooklyn, New York.

Not to mention his other works on other things electrical: motors, welding, ovens and smelting.

Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#12

Post by _ZeD_ »

m-i-l wrote: post #9

If questions like this become political within a US-specific persepctive, they can have an element of nationalism when considered with a more global perspective. Many people in the UK know the story of UK-based Joseph Swan developing his own bulb, patenting it, setting up a company and selling it, supplying homes and businesses such as The Savoy, and then a US marketer called Edison later coming along and taking cred…

well... like the telephone: everyone in italy know that the inventor is not Bell, but Meucci

Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#13

Post by rob74 »

m-i-l wrote: post #9

If questions like this become political within a US-specific persepctive, they can have an element of nationalism when considered with a more global perspective. Many people in the UK know the story of UK-based Joseph Swan developing his own bulb, patenting it, setting up a company and selling it, supplying homes and businesses such as The Savoy, and then a US marketer called Edison later coming along and taking cred…

Same goes for heavier-than-air flight, where many countries have their own aviation pioneers (which they of course like to highlight) who contributed various features until airplanes were finally technologically viable around the time World War I started...

Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#14

Post by WilTimSon »

m-i-l wrote: post #9

If questions like this become political within a US-specific persepctive, they can have an element of nationalism when considered with a more global perspective. Many people in the UK know the story of UK-based Joseph Swan developing his own bulb, patenting it, setting up a company and selling it, supplying homes and businesses such as The Savoy, and then a US marketer called Edison later coming along and taking cred…

> perhaps also that this article is a little US-focussed

Most reporting is, since the USA is the biggest cultural exporter out there. It's incredibly difficult to convince people that the prominent US figures aren't always the ones who achieved things because their work is documented better and got more spotlight.

Also, I've actually never heard of the Roundhay Garden Scene and was dead certain that Lumiere brothers originated cinema, so that's a lesson for me.

Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#15

Post by sigillum »

m-i-l wrote: post #9

If questions like this become political within a US-specific persepctive, they can have an element of nationalism when considered with a more global perspective. Many people in the UK know the story of UK-based Joseph Swan developing his own bulb, patenting it, setting up a company and selling it, supplying homes and businesses such as The Savoy, and then a US marketer called Edison later coming along and taking cred…

a more vivid example is when a single inventor is claimed by multiple national propagandas e.g. Sklodowska-Curie was a polish woman living in France who discovered radium and polonium.

Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#17

Post by jcbose »

_ZeD_ wrote: post #12
m-i-l wrote: post #9

If questions like this become political within a US-specific persepctive, they can have an element of nationalism when considered with a more global perspective. Many people in the UK know the story of UK-based Joseph Swan developing his own bulb, patenting it, setting up a company and selling it, supplying homes and businesses such as The Savoy, and then a US marketer called Edison later coming along and taking cred…

well... like the telephone: everyone in italy know that the inventor is not Bell, but Meucci

and everyone in italy know that marconi stole the idea of the radio receiver from bose's coherer?

Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#18

Post by sokoloff »

nix23 wrote: post #8
TeMPOraL wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The heroes of yore were the ones who wrote history. I'm just an editor.

No one 'writes' history, that's why you need historians, they are the ones that can bring a matter into the right context and research why something was 'written' like it is, like it was a battle of 10000 Horsemen when in fact historians know that a that time in hole Europe maximal 3000 Battle-horses existed.

I’m pretty sure that GP’s use of “write” was meant as doing things not the literal writing them down.

Re: Who invented the lightbulb?

#19

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

Seems Edison invented the light bulb in much the same way Steve Jobs invented the modern smartphone.

Both took existing technology, added the missing pieces to make it a wide scale, must have product, created an ecosystem around it, and popularized it to the market, and reaped massive monetary rewards.

As far as the regular person is concerned, calling the person most responsible for the widespread adoption of a technology the “inventor” is probably more right than wrong.

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