Joseph Swan

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (October 31, 1828 - May 27, 1914) was a physicist and chemist born in Sunderland, England

His contributions to the field of photography included bromide paper, and the carbon process for printing. Artificial cellulose thread for making artificial silk, was another of his inventions, as was the cellular lead plate storage battery.

However he is most famous for the development of the light bulb. In 1850 the British pioneer began working with carbonized paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb. By 1860 he was able to demonstrate a working device, and obtained a UK patent covering a partial vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp but lack of an adequate supply of electricity resulted in a short lifetime for the bulb and inefficient light. By the mid-1870s better pumps became available, and Swan returned to his experiments.

Swan received a British patent for his device in 1878, about a year before Edison. Swan his reported success to the Newcastle Chemical Society and at a lecture in Newcastle in February 1879 he demonstrated a working lamp that utilized a carbon fibre filament. The most significant feature of Swan's lamp was that there was little residual oxygen in the vacuum tube to ignite the filament, thus allowing the filament was able to glow almost white-hot without catching fire. From this year he began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England and by 1881 he had started his own company, and The Swan Electric Light Company was producing the first commercial lamps. Later Swan teamed up with Edison for the commercial exploitation, using the trade mark "Edi-Swan"