The discovery of the incandescent light bulb is usually attributed to Thomas Edison, who also received the relevant patent on January 27, 1880. However, efforts to implement this idea had begun many years earlier and by various researchers.
The first notable experiments were done in the 1860s by the English physicist and chemist Joseph Swann, who sought to make lamps with carbon filament, but success was mixed, as the filament would break down after a few minutes. Eighteen years later, he decided to repeat his experiments, using a new invention, the high vacuum pump. Swann introduced his electric light bulb in 1879, but found that it was a little too late…
Just a few months earlier, Thomas Edison had applied for a patent for a similar vacuum bulb. On New Year's Day 1879 he presented an array of 50 light bulbs, powered by a direct current generator. Three years later, he began their industrial production at the privately owned "Edison Lamp Company" factory in New Jersey, which he had set up with foreign funding. In the meantime, he replaced the carbon thread with tough Japanese bamboo fibers.
Swann had started manufacturing lamps in Great Britain since 1880, using carbon-treated cotton fibers as filament.
