http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/lightbulbs/index.html ... So, who invented the lightbulb? Most people would answer little Tommy Edison, but they would be wrong. In fact, they were being used as electric lights for more than 50 years prior to his patent date. In addition, Edison was not the first to patent the modern design of the lightbulb. It seems that an inventor named Joseph Swan demonstrated the same carbon filament lightbulb in Newcastle at least ten months prior to Edison's announcement. In addition, Swan received a British patent in 1878 for the same bulb that Edison patented in the U. S. in 1879. Did Edison know about Swan's work, or did they simply work independently and arrive at the same conclusion? There is no question that Edison had seen a Scientific American article on Swan's preliminary work with carbon filament electric lighting. But Swan's work had not been perfected at this point, so Edison may have arrived at his invention by improving on Swan's preliminary designs. Eventually, Edison was the one making the big $$$ off this invention and Swan was rightfully upset with this situation. So, if you were in Swan's boots, what would you do? Sue the pants off of Edison. And that is exactly what Swan did. Edison lost in the British courts for infringement of Swan's patent. As part of the settlement, Edison was forced to take Swan in as a partner in his British electric works. The company was called the Edison and Swan United Electric Company. Eventually, Edison acquired all of Swan's interest in the company. In the United States, Edison didn't have the chance to put up a fight. The U.S. Patent Office had ruled on October 8, 1883 that Edison's patents were based on the prior art of a man named William Sawyer and were invalid. In addition, Swan had already sold his U.S. patent rights to the Brush Electric Company in June of 1882. So why does Edison get all the credit for the invention of the lightbulb? Very simple, he owned the power company - what was to eventually become General Electric. After all, what use is a light bulb without electricity? Edison set up a system of power distribution in New York City. He used the DC (direct current) system, which is no longer used. As a side note, one of our greatest and least recognized scientists, Nikola Tesla, designed the modern system of AC (and the first hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls) for George Westinghouse. From 1879 to 1882, Edison only sold 3,144 bulbs to 203 Manhattan customers. After another seven years, their customer base grew to only 710! Eventually, word of mouth and lower electricity costs led to a rapid increase in customers. Ten years later, there were three million customers. By the way, the original bulbs only lasted for 150 hours (an average one lasts 1500 hours today). Within ten years, Edison had perfected a 1200 hour bulb.
本贴由[有好就顶]最后编辑于：2007-1-19 1:37:27 | 
哈哈哈哈 O(∩_∩)O哈哈~ 好久不来了，不小心看了一眼自己主页，发现自动关联了自己以往发过的帖，点进这个看了一眼，笑个半死。。。敢情我当初还发过这么搞笑的东西啊，我自己完全不记得了 
雷达卡
发表于 2007-1-19 08:27:48
：说起他的大名，您未必熟悉，
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千斤顶
发表于 2007-1-19 08:29:28
Olive Oil 
楼主
顶啊! 
看大腕的图片好难啊--博客里的那些老图片也好难打开[:
俺也一个都木看到，要求大腕为俺们补课，开个国内专场。 
