History of the lighbulb

  • The Electric Arc Lamp

    Humphry Davy invented the first electric light. He invented the electric battery and then connected wires and carbon to the battery and the carbon lit up. Unfortunately though, the light didn't last for too long and was too bright for practical use.
  • Light Bulb not for sale

    Warren de la Rue enclosed a platinum filament in a vacuum tube and then put an electric current through it. The design was made this way because he thought that at the high melting point of platinum it would allow the platinum to operate at high temperatures considering the fewer amount of gas molecules, improving the longevity. However the cost of platinum was too high for commercial production.
  • Paris's electric street lamps

    Using Humphry Davy's method, Paris was the first city to attempt to light their city with street lamps.
  • The Geissler Tube

    Heinrich Geissler created a tube to use with electricity and could contain an electric charge. This paved the way for neon and different lighting.
  • Thomas Edison

    Edison spent his life with electricity and patented a lamp in 1879 and a 16 watt light bulb in 1880.
  • Tesla and Edison

    Nikola Tesla and Edison worked together closely before Tesla went to work on his own, creating the wireless electrical lamp.
  • Neon Lights

    At the Paris motor show, Georges Claude created the first neon lighting. Paris really set the stage for the lighting industry
  • Neon

    At the Paris motor show a man named Georges Claude demonstrated neon lighting which he invented.
  • Fluorescent lighting

    Edmund Gerner created a lamp with fluorescent lighting, this type of lighting grew in popularity
  • Fluorescent efficiency

    In the New York world fair, companies coveyed the efficiency for the fluorescent light.
  • Not saving energy

    The Philips company decided to create an energy saving fluorescent lamp but the price was to expensive for consumers.
  • Lasting bulbs

    When Edison created his 16 watt light bulb it could only last around 1500 hours. Philips company created a fluorescent bulb that lasted up to 60,000 hours and was produced at a reasonable price
  • LED's

    Shuji Nakamura created the LED light, or light emitting diodes. Using blue and white LED's he started the revolution of LED's
  • Pushing forward with LED

    Energy departments realised the need for more efficiency in electric light so they created a device that packaged LED's together to make better lighting .
  • LED competition

    The energy department decided to hold a competition to with hold the best energy efficient light bulb. Philips won in 2011 with their affordable LED bulb.
  • Energy saves

    As of 2012, 49 million people were using the LED s across America. This has saved $675 million dollars