Who invented the light bulb?

What could be simpler than a light bulb? A glass bulb, a filament, a current - that’s all the components. LED, halogen, incandescent lamps - there are so many varieties in our time - you can choose to suit any interior and every taste. But who invented the first light bulb? Edison or Yablochkin? And why is Lodygin considered the “father” of the modern lamp? Let's figure it out now.

Invention of the incandescent lamp in Europe

Technically, the principle itself was discovered chemist Gunfrey Davy. It was he who, in 1800, attached two wires with carbon sticks to a battery and got a luminous arc.

A luminous arc covered by a glass dome became the first in the history of mankind "arc light". Over the next decade, it became the most popular lamp - it cost cheaperthan oil or gas lamps for streets, excellent coped with spacious factory floors and looked appropriate in homes. Minuses she had significant ones: graphite rods had to be used very often change, the lamp emitted ultraviolet, loud cracked, and the light itself flickered.

Researchers reached out to optimize and improve the Davy lamp. Forty years after the discovery, chemists placed the thread in a vacuum tube, tried different materials for the rod, and registered more and more patents.

Work was carried out in both Europe and Russia.Both there and there invented their own types of lamps. Let's look at the most popular ones.

Swan lamp

Was invented in 1850 year. Design: carbonized paper as thread and glass vacuum flask. Within 10 years, the inventor received a patent for a partial incandescent lamp with a carbon filament.

The main disadvantage of the invention is that it burned out very quickly due to imperfect vacuumization and problems with the power source.

The Briton did not stop at one option. He constantly made improvements to the design, and in 1878 demonstrated new type of device: used instead of carbonized paper carbon thread obtained from cotton. Thirteen and a half hours - that’s how long the device could work without a break.

Edison lamp

Yes, it was not invented “in a vacuum” by itself. The scientist monitored all events in the scientific world on this topic and took up development after the patent was issued to Swan.

He believed that the main drawback of the British design was the thickness of the carbon thread. According to Thomas Edison, it should be much thinner. He bought the patents Woodward and Evans (offered their own version of the incandescent lamp in 1875) and adapted the thread incandescent under the Swan model.

The result was a practical electric bulb lamp that could burn up to 40 hours and provided stable light without noise effects. After producing prototypes that gave his invention an advantage, Edison... sued Swan for patent infringement.

We will not dwell in detail on further history. Edison continued to work on improving the invention further. Thus, a team of specialists under his leadership tested more than 600 plants. The key question was: what “raw material” will give the best thread? Won by a landslide bamboo, and in the future exactly bamboo charcoal threads began to be used in production (now tungsten ones are used).

By the way, Edison “reconciled” with Swan. The British court considered Swan's patent to be a priority, and the inventors opened a “small start-up” to produce lamps.

Subsequently Edison created familiar cartridges for lamps, and not only engineers, but also ordinary people were able to service the equipment - it was enough to unscrew a burnt-out light bulb and replace it with a new one.

In principle, this is precisely why Edison is considered the “father” of the modern light bulb and it was his invention that gradually began to be found everywhere.

Invention of the light bulb in Russia

Yes, in those distant times, Russia was not at the full forefront of scientific research and inventions. In parallel with Western colleagues, research was carried out in our homeland. There were also several well-known inventions (by the way, the prototype of the modern lamp was the invention not of Edison, but of our compatriot - Lodygina). What did our compatriots bring to this issue? Now we'll tell you.

Yablochkov's light bulb

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov, Russian electrical engineer and inventor, invented my candle practically accidentally. Working with electrolysis, he accidentally connected two carbon electrodes together and received a discharge (quite bright).

This is how he realized that the electrodes in the device do not necessarily have to be pressed against each other. Subsequently, Yablochkov assembled a kind of candle in which two carbons were separated isolation. As a “layer” we used... White clay (aka - kaolin).

Principle – arc burning in gas. The design (like everything ingenious) was quite simple, cheap and worked for a long time, and therefore created a real sensation at the exhibition in London.

For quite a long time after this, it was Yablochkov’s candles that illuminated the streets, museums and palaces of European cities.

Lodygin's light bulb

It was patented a year earlier than Yablochkov’s candle (in 1874). It looked like a glass ball, inside of which there was two copper rods. The rods were connected by a thin (about 2 mm) thread made of retort coal.

A current was supplied to the rods, which passed through a carbon filament and heated it. The result was an even light. Such lamps did not work for long - about four hours. Subsequently, the design was constantly improved. So, Didrichson, one of the inventor’s assistants, suggested pumping out air from the flask. It didn’t work out perfectly (with a hand pump), but the service life increased critically.

Lodygin’s merit also lies in the fact that he was the first I tried metal threads instead of carbon. Including tungsten, which is still used today in incandescent lamps.

Unfortunately, the invention did not bring financial success to Lodygin. In Russia, the scientist was given the Lomonosov Prize with a grant of 1000 rubles, and the lamp production company he founded in his homeland quickly went bankrupt.

Afterwards the inventor emigrated to the USA and over time... sold the patent for pennies to General Electric (organized by Edison). As a result, the manufacturer benefited, but not the inventor.

So who invented the first incandescent lamp in the world?

No one specific. How so? The fact is that in fact, the invention of the light bulb is a collective effort.A number of scientists conducted experiments with electricity, made mistakes, continued trying, proposed their own versions of the invention, received patents and presented inventions.

Other scientists were inspired by the work of their colleagues or made significant changes to the design, improving it more and more.

Formally, there are three “founders” of modern lamps - Lodygin, Edison and Yablochkov. Their inventions had fundamental schematic differences, but nevertheless they formed the basis of modern incandescent lamps that illuminated our streets, houses and shops.