Incandescent Light Bulb
Thomas Edison, USA, patent 223,898 of 1880. The carbon-filament lamp that electrified the world's nights.
Overview
Edison's 1879 high-resistance carbon filament made electric lighting commercially real, patented in 1880 after months of material trials including bamboo. Swan in Britain had parallel patents, forcing the Ediswan merger. Patent wars raged through the 1880s as Westinghouse and Thomson-Houston consolidated. Pearl Street station lit Wall Street in 1882. GE formed from the Edison general electric empire in 1892. Filament patents expired, but the grid they demanded rewired civilization.
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