User:Rawalder/The Swan Electric Lamp Company

In the Summer of 1880 Joseph Wilson Swan had produced a reliable carbon filament lamp by treating a cotton filament with sulphuric acid. In 1881 he set up the Swan Electric Lamp Co in Newcastle to make incandescent lamp's and appointed Colonel REB Crompton as the chief engineer. Following an unsuccesful attempt by Thomas Alva Edison to protect his British patent Swan agreed to join forces with Edison to form the  Edison Swan United Electric Light Co. This was shortened to Ediswan and a factory was set up at Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1886 the company took over the former jute mill at Duck Lees Lane, Ponders End near London and converted it for the manufacture of electric light bulbs. The light bulbs were originally made with carbon filaments but In 1907 the company pioneered the use of tungsten filaments which is still the preffered material for the filaments of modern lamps.