The invention of the light bulb was a cumulative effort involving several inventors over many decades, rather than the work of a single person. Key contributors include:
- Alessandro Volta (late 1700s to early 1800s), who invented the electric battery and demonstrated early incandescent lighting concepts.
- Humphry Davy (early 1800s), who created the electric arc lamp, an early form of electric light.
- Warren de la Rue (1840), who developed a platinum filament lamp in a vacuum tube.
- Joseph Swan (1870s), who created a practical incandescent light bulb with carbon filaments and was the first to have it in commercial use in England.
- Thomas Edison (late 1870s), who improved on previous designs by finding a durable filament and better vacuum technology to create the first commercially viable light bulb, and also developed the integrated electric lighting system.
While Edison is often credited with inventing the light bulb due to his commercial success and development of the entire lighting system, many inventors before him laid the groundwork for the incandescent light bulb we know today. Edison and Swan eventually merged their efforts commercially under the Ediswan company. Thus, the light bulb is best viewed as a product of multiple innovators' work over many years.
