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Famous false 'facts' – who invented the light bulb?

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb or is he?

Everyone knows who invented the lightbulb, it was Thomas Edison, right? It's one of those facts that just rolls off the tongue or has people muttering, 'easy,' and shaking their heads in pub quizzes while they scribble down the answer.

But it's completely wrong, and it's perhaps one of the most famous incorrect 'facts' of modern times.

Most inventors and innovators rarely make it into the public consciousness despite the fact that their great work surrounds us every day in technology that we mostly take for granted. Who's ever heard of Shunpei Yamazaki, Carleton Ellis or Jerome Lemelson? Probably not many, but its thanks to them that we have things like LCDs, anti-knock petrol, margerine, polyester, industrial robots, cordless telephones and paint stripper, to name just a few. Yet Edison is known by pretty much everyone, and he's known for inventing something that he, well, didn't invent.

Edison invented lots of things. He is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents, but he didn't invent the light bulb. What Edison did do was to make the light bulb a practical means of illumination by experimenting with different filaments in order to find one that glowed brightly enough and lasted long enough to be pratical.

He succeeded and produced a long-lasting bulb, but electric light itself was first invented by English scientist Humphry Davy in 1800.

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