Joseph Swan
Person
Born
The carbon-filament lamp. The Newcastle chemist Swan had worked on electric lamps for decades before better vacuum pumps let him demonstrate a working carbon-filament bulb in 1878 and 1879, independently of Thomas Edison. His lamps lit Cragside, the first house powered by hydroelectricity, and the Savoy Theatre. Rather than fight in court, the two men merged their British interests as Ediswan in 1883.
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