LED

Nick Holonyak, USA, patent 3,249,473 of 1966. The first visible light-emitting diode, red and revolutionary.

Overview

General Electric's Holonyak made gallium arsenide phosphide glow red in 1962, predicting lamps that would replace Edison's filaments. Colleagues doubted; the patent granted 1966. George Craford's yellow LED followed at Monsanto, and brightness scaled through the 1970s. Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura cracked efficient blue in the 1990s, winning the 2014 Nobel and enabling white light. LEDs now cut lighting energy by three-quarters globally. Holonyak called his red dot the ultimate lamp's start.