User:Carariney/Electric light

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Before electric lighting became common in the early 20th century, people used candles, gas lights, oil lamps, and fires. During 1799-1800, Alessandro Volta created the electric battery and the voltaic pile. One of the earliest forms of incandescent lighting, the voltaic pile emitted light in its copper wire. Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov developed the first persistent electric arc in 1802, and English chemist Humphry Davy gave a practical demonstration of an arc light in 1806.

In 1840, James Bowman Lindsay and Warren de la Rue utilized the ideals of the arc light by enclosing a platinum coil in a vacuum tube and passed electric current through it. This created one of the world's first electric light bulbs.The design was based on the concept that the high melting point of platinum would allow it to operate at high temperatures and that the evacuated chamber would contain fewer gas molecules to react with the platinum, improving its longevity. Although it was an efficient design, the cost of the platinum made it impractical for commercial use. Hearing this, Joseph Swan involved himself. Swan utilized William Staite’s designs which helped him create the first successful incandescent filament electric lamp. However, Swan’s filaments were too thick. Thomas Edison worked to create filaments that were thinner. This design was successful, which made him the first person to overcome the scientific challenges of the lightbulb design.

The late 1870s and 1880s were marked by intense competition and innovation between Swan and Edison independently developing functional incandescent lamps. This rivalry eventually led to a merger, forming the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company. By the early twentieth century these had completely replaced arc lamps.