History

Before Incandescent Light Bulbs

Humphry Davy (1802)

Davy was one of the first to demonstrate the principle of electric lighting. He invented the arc lamp by connecting a battery to two carbon rods, creating an arc of electricity that produced light. While this was an important discovery, the arc lamp was impractical for widespread use.

The First Incandescent Light Bulbs

Throughout the history of the incandescent light bulb, numerous versions were developed before arriving at the one commonly used today. Warren de la Rue's platinum-filament bulb inspired many inventors and scientists to work on creating a more practical version. In the 1800s, figures like William Robert Grove, W.E. Staite, John Daper, Frederik de Moleyns, Edward G. Shepherd, John T. Way, C. de Chagny, and Heinrich Göbel all made efforts to develop a viable light bulb. Their main challenge was finding a cost-effective filament that could remain stable at high temperatures and last long enough for commercial use. Thomas Edison was the first to succeed in achieving this.

Thomas Edison (1879)

Thomas Edison significantly improved on existing designs and is often credited with inventing the first commercially viable incandescent light bulb. He used a carbon filament in a better vacuum, which allowed the bulb to last much longer than previous versions (up to 1200 hours).

Lewis Latimer (1881)

Lewis Latimer who worked for Edison, invented a method to make carbon filaments more durable and longer-lasting by using carbonized bamboo. He played a critical role in the commercialization of Edison’s light bulb.

Fluorescent Bulbs

Heinrich Geissler (1850s)

Heinrich Geissler was one of the pioneers who laid the groundwork for fluorescent lighting. In the mid-19th century, he invented the Geissler tube, a sealed glass tube filled with gas that emitted light when an electric current passed through it. His experiments showed that certain gases could glow when electrically excited.

Peter Cooper Hewitt (1901)

Peter Cooper Hewitt made a significant step toward the development of the fluorescent lamp by creating the mercury vapor lamp. This lamp used mercury vapor to produce blue-green light. Though not suitable for general lighting because of its harsh color, it was a precursor to the fluorescent lamp and found use in industrial settings.

George Inman and General Electric (1934)

While Hewitt laid the foundation, it was George Inman and a team of researchers at General Electric (GE) who made the fluorescent lamp commercially viable. In the 1930s, Inman worked with General Electric to perfect Germer’s design, improving the phosphor coating and creating a more efficient ballast to regulate the electrical current in the lamp. They produced the first commercial fluorescent lamps by 1939.

LED Bulbs

Oleg Losev (1927)

In the 1920s, Russian scientist Oleg Losev discovered that diodes made of zinc oxide and silicon carbide emitted light when an electric current passed through them. Losev filed the first patent for an LED in 1927, but the technology remained largely unexplored due to a lack of practical applications or understanding at the time.

Nick Holonyak Jr. (1962)

The real breakthrough came in 1962 when Nick Holonyak Jr., an American engineer working at General Electric (GE), invented the first practical visible-spectrum red LED. Holonyak is often called the “father of the LED” because his invention was the first LED capable of emitting light visible to the human eye. He used gallium arsenide phosphide as the material to create red light, and his invention laid the groundwork for future LED developments.

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