[LINK] GE Announces Advancement in Incandescent

[Stewart Fist]

Ivan writes
> 
> But since when was Edison credited with the invention of the light
> bulb? And since when is it only 125 years old?
> 
> Whatever happened to Sir Humphry Davy's invention of the platinum
> filament back in 1801, or later, Janes Lindsay (demonstrated a
> constant electric light in Dundee in 1835). Okay, perhaps not in a
> vacuum, but that was first demonstrated by Warren de la Rue in 1840.
> Then came Frederick de Moleyns (who was granted the first patent 40
> years before Edison), and John Wellington Starr (who was also granted
> a patent a few years later), then Robert Houdin, or Alexander
> Lodygin, or Heinrich Göbel, or Joseph Swan, or Henry Woodward and
> Mathew Evans. There are at least 20 'prior art' claims to Edison's
> grab at fame and fortune (he needed money via grants to develop 'his'
> patent).
> 
> All Edison did was to buy the US and Canadian patents, in 1875 (or
> thereabouts).

The problem is with the word "invention" not with the word "Edison"

All of these other people 'invented' only a small or transient part of an
electrical lighting system, while Edison had the sense and the resources to
put it all together. What was important was devising a coherent network with
dozens of parts, and all of these his staff needed to invent, adapted,
devised and/or improved, until they had something that worked better for
home and office/factory lighting than piped town gas.

You can argue endlessly about who invented what, but you can't argue about
who made the whole system work.  Edison was a genius -- a very flawed,
ruthless and mercenary genius, but still a genius.


-- 
Stewart Fist, writer, journalist, film-maker
70 Middle Harbour Road, LINDFIELD, 2070, NSW, Australia
Ph +61 (2) 9416 7458