Inventor of Electric Lamp

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 27, 15 January 1932, Page 24

Inventor of Electric Lamp

Claim for Swan APROPOS our article by "Observer" in a recent issue, in which it was stated that Wdison had invented the electric lamp, a correspondent draws our attention to a Press clipping attributing the discovery to Swan, an Englishman. The clipping reads: That an Englishman, Sir Joseph Swan, invented the incandescent electric lamp and not Thomas Edison is the claim advanced by Mr. Kenneth Swan on behalf of-his late father. \

Jamp was produced ten months J} Syre Bdison’s, and that the British Ins}).4@jle of Blectrical Engineers declined to share in the jubilee celebrations now taking place in the United States because they celebrated the jubilee of Sir Joseph’s invention last year. "T am not moved so much by a sense of filial duty as by a desire to see an Englishman acknowledged by his own people," says Kenneth Swan. His father’s successful incandescent carbon filament lamp was exhibited in Newcastle, December 18, 1875, while. the date claimed for Edison’s invention is October 21,- 1879. A company was formed to acquire his father’s process, says Mr. Swan, and when there were threats of litigation petween that company and Edison’s, instead of fighting they amalgamated, . Swan’s process being adopted and Edi- + son’s dropped. He also claims that Sir Joseph Swan invented what was called’ the "squirted filament," which superseded the former type, though this invention also has been credited to Edison. He declares that Sir Joseph