Isn’t it a bit funny that we wonder who invented light? Light has always existed, however, it is common for people to call electrical energy or light produced by artificial electricity light.
Light is something that we need in our everyday life, at least for most of us. In ancient times, light was created based on the combustion of famous materials. From prehistoric wood fires to later Chinese candles and oil lamps, there have always been ways to light.
However, electric light has been a relatively recent discovery. Whether it is to perform a task at night, an important activity, perform surgery or cook, etc., electricity is something that we will need daily for most of our lives, and although thousands of people can live without electricity, living without electricity can be very complex in this century.
There are people whose lives may depend on electricity. Hospitals simply could not function without it. But what do we know about who invented it? Can you invent something that has always been around us? The discovery of electric light is attributed to many people, especially Thomas Alba Edison, however, here we will tell you what is the real story behind the discovery of light.
What do you need
- Investigate
Instructions
- To begin with we have to understand that light as such has not been invented. It’s just that it‘s been discovered. You can’t create something that has always existed just because it hadn’t been discovered before or because you didn’t know it had already been discovered. Electricity is something of nature, not something that can be attributed to any specific man.
- About electric light and its discovery the following can be said. Records of the use of electric light to generate lighting go back to before Edison’s supposed discovery. More than 2,000 years ago there was already talk of natural energy, which today we know for sure as electricity.
- 600 years BC the Greeks already knew about static electricity and carried out experiments generating static between skins and other materials. On the other hand, both the ancient Greek and Persian civilizations already had lighting devices with electrical bases. This has been confirmed thanks to archaeological discoveries in which lamps with copper batteries and other metallic materials used in antiquity stand out.
- In the 17th century many experiments with electricity arose. Dr. William Gilbert used the Latin-derived word “ electrical ” to refer to electricity generated by static forces. So also, later, the term “ electricity ” was used by the writer Thomas Browne.
- In In 1752, Benjamin Franklin experimented with a kite and metal artifacts to cause the attraction of natural lightning. This isn’t discovering electricity or inventing light per se, but it did work to demonstrate the relationship between the similarity of small sparks and lightning and show that they are technically the same.
- The physicist Alessandro Volta created a battery that constantly generated electrical energy. He is considered the first person to generate a constant charge of electricity. This man also carried out several light transmission experiments using homemade connectors of positive and negative charges made using silver and zinc coins.
- Later, thanks to Michael Faraday, the precursor of what we know today as an incandescent light bulb, an electrical generator, was created. This device was called an electric dynamo and it transmitted energy using a magnet that moved inside a coiled wire bulb. This artifact inspired the true creator of the electric incandescent light bulb.
- But it was not until the British chemist Joseph Wilson Swan created the incandescent light bulb that electrical energy could be used to generate light as we know it today, because although light bulbs had been invented with electricity before, he invented the light bulb in which filaments were burned thanks to the combustion by oxygen. Unfortunately, this invention was not patented and later, Thomas Alba Edison took advantage of this situation and took Swan’s invention, which he modified in only one aspect, which was to eliminate oxygen combustion, and patented it as his invention.
- Before Edison, light bulbs had already been made Heinrich Goebel created his version in 1855, decades before Edison’s “invention”. Alexander Lodygin also patented his version of it.
- However, although Edison did not invent the electric light bulb and although it was customary for him to take the inventions of others and patent them, he must be recognized that thanks to him and his team of workers, he managed to improve and perfect many previous inventions, including the light bulb, since he managed to create generators to turn on the light bulb and prolong the useful life of this device.
- Thanks to the work of Edison and the men behind him, the light bulb could even last 3000 hours, but to generate economic income and increase the consumption of the light bulbs, the useful life of the light bulbs was reduced to less than the half so that people would buy more in less time. James Bowman Lindsay, Henry Woodward, Mathew Evans, William Sawyer, and Nicola Tesla also created their versions of the light bulb.
Tips
- In conclusion, nobody invented light since it is something that has always existed, but it was discovered at some point in history, perhaps not by a man, but by several people simultaneously several centuries ago.
- Nicolas Tesla even demonstrated that energy can be obtained without the need for electrical wires and that it can be provided free of charge to everyone. However, because there would be no economic benefits nor could this type of energy be sold or managed, Tesla was never supported to produce clean and free energy