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The More You Know: A Brief History of the Light Bulb

You may take it for granted that every time you flip a switch or turn on a lamp, a bulb lights up. The modern-day light bulb has only been around for less than 150 years, although its precursors were developed in the early 1800s. Here’s a brief history of the light bulb, from the idea stage to Edison and beyond.

Light Bulbs Before Thomas Edison

The early days of light bulb innovation

It might surprise you to know that Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, wasn’t the first person to experiment with creating the light bulb. In 1809, Humphry Davy, a chemist in England, technically invented the light bulb by connecting a rudimentary battery to a carbon strip, making the carbon glow.

Called the electric arc lamp, Davy’s invention was groundbreaking but not highly practical. The light produced was extremely bright and short-lasting. Other scientists tried to piggyback on Davy’s discovery over the next few decades:

• In 1840, Warren de la Rue encased a coiled platinum filament in a vacuum tube and passed a current through it. However, the high cost of platinum made this version impractical as well.
• Joseph Wilson Swan enclosed carbonized paper filaments in a glass bulb, which he refined over 10 years. Swan’s hurdles were twofold. First, he had trouble maintaining the proper vacuum to make the bulb effective. Second, the lack of available electrical power left him, like Davy, with a bulb that didn’t last long enough to be of any use. He kept working on the problem as better vacuum pumps were developed, switching to cotton thread as a filament.
• Canadians Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans filed a patent in 1874 for yet another type of bulb that used carbon rods in a nitrogen-filled tube. However, it was commercially unsuccessful. Eventually, the patent was purchased by Thomas Edison.

Enter Edison and Commercial Applications

The role of New York City in light bulb development

Things got more serious once famed US inventor Thomas Edison came on the scene. He experimented with a variety of light bulb configurations in 1878 and 1879. After filing one patent in 1879, Edison went on to tweak his design and, by 1880, had a bulb that used a carbonized bamboo filament that would last for 1,200 hours.

Once Edison had a model for a light bulb that was actually long-lasting enough to be useful, his Edison Electric Light Company set out to manufacture and market the bulbs. Edison’s other contributions to the item were an improved vacuum system and a screw at the base, which is still used today to attach light bulbs to a lamp socket.

What made Edison’s light bulb so extraordinary wasn’t just the bulb itself. Rather, he strove to create mainstream electrical supply throughout the city of New York, starting with lower Manhattan, so anybody could use his bulbs. He developed the first commercial power utility in New York at the Pearl Street Station. He also created the first electrical meter so that consumers could track how much energy they were using.

Improvements on Edison’s Work

Advances in efficiency and durability

In the decades following Edison’s light bulb patents, advances continued to be made in light bulb filament materials and the bulb’s longevity. A tungsten filament was developed in 1904 in Europe. Inert gas was added to the inside of the bulb in 1913 for greater efficiency. By the early 1950s, bulbs used less energy to create light, although they still utilized the same mechanism and physical principles.

How Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Were Created

Spurred by the energy shortage of 1973

It wasn’t until the energy crunch of the early ‘70s that inventors developed a residential alternative to the incandescent bulb patented by Thomas Edison. Fluorescent lamps had been around since the 19th century, thanks to glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker. Their “discharge lamp,” created by passing an electrical current through a long glass tube with the air removed, became the prototype for the fluorescent bulbs we know today.

Both Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison experimented with fluorescent bulbs but never found them commercially viable. Likewise, Peter Cooper Hewitt’s blue-green lamps were equally unappealing. But the need for energy-efficient bulbs to light plants in the US during World War II led to an industrial version of the fluorescent light bulb.

Sky-high energy prices in the 1970s prodded scientists to start thinking about a fluorescent bulb that could be used in the home. Early versions were bulky and expensive, but in the 1980s and ‘90s, models emerged — compact fluorescents or CFLs — that consumers could afford and utilize anywhere in the home.

LED Bulbs and New Light Bulb Trends

Cost savings, energy conservation, and convenience

Even more energy-efficient than fluorescents are LED bulbs. Light-emitting diode bulbs, or LEDs, use technology that’s somewhat similar to lasers. These bulbs use so little energy and last so long because they don’t rely on creating excess heat to light up a filament inside. While they cost a bit more initially, they last years longer and use considerably less electricity than incandescents or even compact fluorescents.

We recommend that all of our clients in New York City switch to LED bulbs to save money and reduce manpower hours changing bulbs. If you’re ready to explore LED bulbs or need other electrical work done, Bolt Electric is here to help.

Call us at 212-434-0098, or schedule an appointment using our easy online form.