The Light Bulb

Maier's images of (left) Swan's 1883 version of his light bulb, and (right) Maxim's bulb, which was actually patented by Black inventor Lewis Latimer.

Did you know...
9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.
But this isn't true; Joseph Wilson Swan, a physicist and chemist, invented the first light bulb in 1860.
Swan's light bulb design was substantially that used by Thomas Alva Edison in America nearly 20 years later. In 1880, after the improvement of vacuum techniques, both Swan and Edison produced a practical light bulb.
Lewis Howard Latimer, a pioneer in the development of the electric light bulb, was the only Black member of Thomas A. Edison's research team of noted scientists. While Edison invented the incandescent bulb, it was Latimer, a member of the Edison Pioneers, who developed and patented the process for manufacturing the carbon filaments.