Everything you didn't know about the first incandescent lamp. Who invented the light bulb first, Lodygin or Edison? Who invented the light bulb

The electric incandescent lamp has long become an object without which it is difficult to imagine our lives. In the evening, when entering a house or apartment, the first thing we do is flip the switch in the hallway and within a moment a bright light flashes, dispelling the darkness around us. And at the same time, we don’t think about where such an ordinary light bulb came to us from and who invented the light bulb. The electric lamp has long become commonplace for us, but once upon a time it was akin to a real miracle.

Before the invention of electricity, people lived in twilight. With the onset of darkness, the dwellings were plunged into darkness and their inhabitants, in order to somehow disperse the darkness that frightened them, lit a fire.

To illuminate houses in different countries, lamps of various designs, torches, candles, and torches were used, and fires were lit in the open air, for example, on the road or in military camps. People treasured these light sources; they invented legends and composed songs about them.

However, the inquisitive human mind already in ancient times was looking for an alternative to all these devices. After all, they all gave little light, smoked heavily, filling the room with smoke, and besides, they could go out at any minute. Archaeologists who discovered amazing paintings inside the ancient Egyptian pyramids could not help but wonder how the ancient artists made these drawings despite the fact that natural light did not penetrate into the pyramids, and no soot was found on the walls and ceiling from torches or lamps. It is likely that the answer to this question has already been found in the city of Dendera, in the temple of the goddess Hathor. It is there that there are bas-reliefs, which may depict an ancient electric lamp similar to a gas-discharge lamp.

In the 9th century AD. In the Middle East, an oil lamp was invented, which became the prototype of a kerosene lamp, but it did not become widespread and remained a rare curiosity.

Thus, until the middle of the 19th century, the most popular light sources remained oil and fat lamps, candles, lanterns and torches, and in camp conditions - the same fires as in ancient times.

The kerosene lamp, invented in the middle of the 19th century, supplanted all other sources of artificial lighting, although not for long: until the electric light bulb appeared - the most common for us, but absolutely amazing for the people of that time.

At the dawn of discovery

The operation of the first incandescent lamps was based on the principle that conductors glow when electric current is passed through them. This very property of such materials was known long before the invention of the light bulb. The problem was that for a very long time the inventors could not find a suitable material for an incandescent filament that would provide long-lasting and effective, and also inexpensive lighting.

Background to the appearance of incandescent lamps:

Who first invented the light bulb

In the 1870s, serious work began on the invention of the electric light bulb. Many prominent scientists and inventors devoted years and decades of their lives to working on this project. Lodygin, Yablochkov and Edison - these three inventors worked in parallel on the design of incandescent lamps, so disputes still continue about which of them can be considered the world's first inventor of the incandescent electric lamp.

Lamp by A. N. Lodygin

He began his experiments on the invention of the incandescent lamp in 1870 after his retirement. At the same time, the inventor was simultaneously working on several projects: creating an electric plane, a diving apparatus and a light bulb.

In 1871-1874, he conducted experiments to find the most suitable material for an incandescent coil. Having initially tried to use iron wire and failed, the inventor began experimenting with a carbon rod placed in a glass container.

In 1874, Lodygin received a patent for the incandescent lamp he invented, not only Russian, but also international, patenting his invention in many European countries and even in India and Australia.

In 1884, for political reasons, the inventor left Russia. For the next 23 years he worked alternately in France and in the USA. Even in exile, he continued to develop new designs for incandescent lamps, patenting those that used refractory metals as the material for the spiral. In 1906, Lodygin sold these patents to the General Electric Company in the USA. During his research, the inventor came to the conclusion that the best materials for incandescent filaments are tungsten and molybdenum. And the first incandescent lamps produced in the USA were made according to his design and with tungsten filament.

Yablochkov's lamp P. N.

In 1875, finding himself in Paris, he began inventing an arc lamp without a regulator. Yablochkov had begun work on this project even earlier, while living in Moscow, but failed. The capital of France became the city where he was able to achieve outstanding results.

By the beginning of the spring of 1876, the inventor completed work on the design of an electric candle, and on March 23 of the same year he received a patent for it in France. This day became significant not only in the fate of P. N. Yablochkov himself, but also a turning point for the further development of electrical and lighting engineering.

Yablochkov's candle was simpler and cheaper to operate than Lodygin's coal lamp. In addition, it did not have any springs or any mechanisms. It looked like two rods clamped in two separate terminals of a candlestick, which were separated by a kaolin partition, isolating them from each other. An arc charge was ignited at the upper ends, after which the arc flame slowly burned the coal and vaporized the insulating material, at the same time emitting a bright glow.

Later, Yablochkov tried to change the color of the lighting, for which he added salts of various metals to the insulating material for the partition.

In April 1876, the inventor demonstrated his candle at an electrical exhibition in London. The large audience was delighted with the bright bluish-white electric light that flooded the room.

The success was incredible. The scientist and his invention were written about in the foreign press. And already at the end of the 1870s, streets, shops, theaters, hippodromes, palaces and mansions were illuminated with electric candles not only in Europe, but also in the USA, Brazil, Mexico, India, Burma and Cambodia. And in Russia, the first test of Yablochkov’s electric candles took place in the fall of 1878.

It was a real triumph for the Russian inventor. After all, before his candle, there was not a single invention in the field of electrical engineering that would so quickly become popular throughout the world.

Edison lamp T.A.

He conducted his experiments with incandescent lamps in the late 1870s, that is, he worked on this project simultaneously with Lodygin and Yablochkov.

In April 1879, Edison experimentally came to the conclusion that without a vacuum, none of the incandescent lamps would work, or if they did, it would be extremely short-lived. And already in October of the same year, an American researcher completed work on a project for a carbon incandescent lamp, which is considered one of the most important inventions of the 19th century.

In 1882, together with several prominent financiers, the inventor founded the company Edison General Electric c, where they began to manufacture various electrical appliances. To win the market, Edison even went so far as to set the selling price of the lamp at 40 cents, despite the fact that its production cost 110 cents. Subsequently, the inventor suffered losses for four years, although he tried to reduce the cost of incandescent lamps. And when the cost of their production dropped to 22 cents, and the output reached a million pieces, he was able to cover all previous costs within a year, so that further production brought him only profit.

But what was Edison's innovation in inventing the incandescent lamp, other than the fact that he was the first to consider this subject as a means of making a profit? His merit lies not at all in the invention of lamps of this type, but in the fact that he was the first to create a practical and widespread system of electric lighting. And he came up with the modern, familiar shape of the lamp to all of us, as well as a screw base, socket and fuses.

Thomas Edison was distinguished by his high efficiency and always took a very responsible approach to business. So, in order to finally decide on the choice of material for the incandescent filament, he tried more than six thousand samples until he came to the conclusion that the most suitable material for this was carbonized bamboo.

Based on chronology, the inventor of the light bulb is Lodygin. It was he who invented the first lamp for lighting, and he was the first who guessed to pump out air from a glass bulb and use tungsten as an incandescent filament. Yablochkov’s “electric candle” is based on slightly different operating principles and does not require a vacuum, but for the first time, streets and premises began to be illuminated en masse with his candles. As for Edison, it was he who invented the lamp of modern forms, as well as the base, socket and fuses. Therefore, while giving the palm of invention to the first of these three inventors, the role of other researchers cannot be underestimated.

December 20, 1879 American scientist Thomas Edison patented the electric light bulb. It is he who is considered to be the inventor of this device in the USA, although in fact Edison only improved existing developments.

AiF.ru decided to follow how the best minds of humanity created the incandescent lamp.

Why can't a light bulb have just one inventor?

The fact is that in the 19th century, scientists from different countries of the world experimented with electricity, and they all knew very well that some materials begin to glow when exposed to current. The task of these researchers was to create a lighting device that could be used in everyday life. He had to work for at least a few hours. Scientists had big problems with this. Materials through which electricity was passed almost immediately either melted or burst into flames. Realizing that combustion occurs only in an oxygen environment, the inventors tried to place the burner in a transparent container, inside of which there would be a vacuum or gas.

Which scientists created the first incandescent lamps?

In 1840, a British astronomer Warren De la Rue placed a coil of platinum wire in a vacuum tube and passed an electric current through it. However, the high cost and short service life of this device made its practical use impractical.

In 1838, the Belgian inventor Zhobar designed a carbon incandescent lamp that burned for about half an hour.

In the 50-60s of the 19th century, a German scientist Heinrich Goebel improved the incandescent lamp by creating a vacuum in the bulb around the filament. However, the design of the device turned out to be too fragile, and the lamp itself burned only for a few hours.

First commercial application

The creation of the first incandescent lamps suitable for commercial use is associated with the names Alexander Lodygin, Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison. It was they who, independently of each other, achieved a stable, bright and long-lasting glow of carbon incandescent lamps in vacuum flasks and patented their inventions in 1870: in 1874 Lodygin received a Russian patent, in 1878 Swan received a British patent, and a year later he patented his invention in the USA and Edison.

Edison created the first company to produce incandescent lamps: using carbonized bamboo fiber, he and a team of scientists managed to achieve a lamp glow of more than 1,200 hours - this was a technological breakthrough of that time. In the early 1880s, Edison created a joint venture with Swan the British company Edison and Swan, which became the largest manufacturer of electric lamps of its time.

The famous inventor also had a hand in the invention of rechargeable batteries - batteries that can be recharged multiple times. At the end of the 19th century, the nickel-cadmium battery was invented by the Swede Waldemar Jungner, but until they reached the United States, Edison's iron-nickel batteries were popular. For example, they were installed on the Detroit Electric electric car.

Modern incandescent lamp

In the 1890s, Lodygin, who moved to the United States, experimented with refractory materials to create an incandescent filament. He suggested using tungsten, which is used in modern light bulbs. By the way, the first commercial lamp in the United States with a tungsten spiral was produced by General Electric precisely according to Lodygin’s patent, which was sold to it in 1906.

In 1910 William David Coolidge, who worked at General Electric, invented an industrial method for producing tungsten filament, and another General Electric scientist Irving Langmuir used inert gas to fill lamp bulbs, which significantly increased their operating time and increased light output. These are the incandescent lamps we use today.

Hello everyone, dear lovers of interesting facts. I think that none of us can imagine our lives without light. Therefore, today we will find out who was the first in the world to invent a light bulb that resembled a modern one, as well as what and who contributed to this.

The invention of the incandescent light bulb, like all others, was carried out by many people in different countries. The first to demonstrate his brainchild was the Englishman Humphry Davy back in 1806. It was a rather primitive invention. Davy created lighting using electrical sparks between a pair of coal rods. The so-called arc candle was unsuitable for practical widespread use. The device itself did not find support, but the idea of ​​​​creating it, after this demonstration, excited the “bright” minds of many inventors.

Years passed...

Dozens of people worked on the birth of the light bulb, picking up Davy’s idea:
Year 1840 - Englishman Delarue;
Year 1854 – German Heinrich Goebel;
The year is 1860, English chemist and physicist Joseph Wilson Swan showed his work;
Year 1872-1873 - Alexander Lodygin;
Year 1875 - V.F. Didrikhson improved Lodygin’s work;
Year 1875-1876 – Russian electrical engineer Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov, worked on an “electric candle”;
Thomas Edison in 1879 completed what his predecessors could not do.

Russian engineer and his invention

Many people in different countries created their creations. Many were haunted by failure. But Alexander Lodygin’s lamp was able to withstand all the tests. She shone for a full thirty minutes! This was already an unprecedented achievement. As many as two of these “miracle candles” shone on the streets of St. Petersburg! Hundreds of people came specially to see them. It was a real sensation, but... Not everything was so simple. Due to the prevailing circumstances, Lodygin was unable to achieve wide distribution of his creation.

The Russian engineer failed to complete his work, but Thomas Edison succeeded. An American scientist learned about the experiments of his Russian colleague. He decided to improve an existing invention. His work deserves respect - the scientist conducted 1,500 experiments, testing various materials. But this was not the end - 6000 experiments with carbon filaments - this is the contribution that the inventor made to the history of the light bulb.

Is the invention so clear?

Without the ideas of all his predecessors and the invention of Alexander Nikolaevich, Thomas Edison probably would not have succeeded. This fact is obvious, but unprovable. The American's painstaking, persistent work gave humanity a thread that burned for hundreds of hours without burning out. He was also able to organize the production of light bulbs at the first specialized plant; they were distributed throughout all countries of the world, replacing traditional candles. This is how the Edison Electrical Light Company was born.

No one dares to say unequivocally that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but no one has yet been able to refute this either. The incandescent lamp was invented before him. However, he created the first practical model along with an electrical system, which is his undeniable achievement. Well, now you know who was the first in the world to invent the light bulb, without which today’s life is simply unimaginable.

Who invented the light bulb? The answer to this question is not entirely precise. The light bulb was invented by several people, as different people expressed ideas, described hypotheses, published calculations, made drawings, or put ideas into practice.

Lamps before the advent of the electric analogue

In the world, lighting appeared as soon as fire began to be used. Then it began to evolve when energy began to appear.

The first light bulbs were illuminated using such means as:

• any vegetable oil;
• oil;
• wax;
• animal fat;
• natural gas and so on.

The very first inventions of lamps used fat for lighting. A fabric wick was placed in a container with fat. The fat allowed the fire to illuminate for a long time. What came out was something resembling a candle in a container. The history of the light bulb progressed when oil began to be extracted, at which time the kerosene lamp appeared. She became so in demand in a short period of time. The invention of the light bulb came at a time when electricity began to spread rapidly, first in urban spaces, and then in far corners.

Opening stages

The invention of light bulbs was based on the method of glowing conductors when an electric current passed through them. He was known long before the light bulb was created. But the main problem of effective, long-lasting and affordable lighting from the electrical network was the search for a material that would be used to make an incandescent coil. Back then, when electricity was already a reality, and modern incandescent lamps had not yet been invented, scientists practiced only a few types of materials, including coal, platinum and tungsten. The last two materials were considered rare and expensive. Coal was a more accessible material.

Beginning in the 19th century, events took place that contributed to the creation of the first electric light bulb. In 1820, the French scientist Delarue created a light bulb with platinum wire. The wire warmed up and glowed, but it was just a prototype. But 18 years later, a researcher from Belgium, Jobart, showed a carbon incandescent lamp. In 1854, the German scientist Heinrich Goebel used bamboo as a source of lighting.

Who is the author of the light bulb?

If you are interested in the answer to the question - who invented the lamp, it is necessary to take into account that there was a whole series of successive manipulations when the ideas of predecessors were constantly picked up and subsequently developed. Yablochkov is the first Russian inventor who invented the first light bulb, and he also invented the electric candle, thanks to which they subsequently began to illuminate city streets and squares. They could illuminate for 1.5 hours.

Subsequently, lamps were invented that had automatic replacement of candles. Yablochkov created not very convenient candles. Although they did their job very well.

The history of the invention is connected with the name of such a popular engineer from Russia as Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin. In 1872, he made everyone's dream of an uninterrupted light source come true. The history of the creation of the incandescent lamp at this stage began to rapidly gain practical use. It burned for about 30 minutes. They were first installed on the streets of the Northern capital in 1873. That same year, the inventor of the light bulb received a patent. We can conclude. The first incandescent lamp appeared thanks to the inventions of this scientist.

Beginning in 1890, Lodygin began experimenting with the use of various refractory metals in filaments. Ultimately, he was able to use tungsten for the first time here. In addition, at his suggestion, they began for the first time to pump air out of the lamps and fill them with gas.

In 1878, Joseph Swan helped pioneer the modern version of the light bulb. It consisted of a glass bulb with a carbon filament. Little is known about the creator of Hiram Maxim lamps. They created a machine gun called “Maxim”. In addition, he is the creator of the original model based on materials such as coal and gasoline.

Thomas Edison and Ilyich

If we take into account the chronological order of events, then the electric lamp was created by Lodygin. But Yablochkov was the founder of a series of ideas that became the reason for the emergence of a lighting source that is popular today. It was these Russian inventors and the subsequent developments of researchers from Great Britain and America that were able to use the first electric light bulb so widely and it turned out to be an ordinary device that produced light. But when an idea develops, there is the one who gave birth to it, and the one who received the patent. But the invention of the arc lamp is not so well known.

In 1879, Edison's light bulb with a platinum filament was first demonstrated. A year later, he was given another patent for a model with a carbon thread that worked for 40 hours. In addition, he made a certain contribution to the manufacture of the incandescent light bulb, creating the base, socket and switch.

That is, Thomas Edison received a patent for an electric incandescent lamp as his own invention a year later, as Maxim’s model was used, and almost 6 years later after the general display of Lodygin’s lamp. T. Edison's patent work had its own results: when he teamed up with Joseph Swan, he founded a company producing the very first model of incandescent electric lamps. T. Edison, together with H. Maxim, when they competed against each other, were in bureaucratic proceedings among themselves.

T. Edison was more accessible. H. Maxim was not awarded a single patent in this struggle, and he also had huge financial losses, for this reason he left the country and went to Europe. Everything is clear with Edison's light bulb.

But who is the founder of Ilyich’s light bulb? For the current generation, the answer is ambiguous. Such a name was known only on the territory of the Soviet Union; this term ended up in the vocabulary of Russians. Ilyich's light bulbs are the name of not just a lighting device, but a whole series of phenomena. In 1921, a deep economic crisis reigned in Russia, which broke out as a result of the well-known civil war. And at this time, the State Commission for Electrification of the Russian Federation adopted the GOELRO plan. It was a plan for the development of the economy, which was based on the creation of an energy base. At this time, they began to electrify the country on a huge scale. Soon, electric light bulbs began to appear in villages where mainly beam or kerosene lamps were used.

The idea of ​​this plan was voiced by Lenin. For this reason, incandescent lamps began to be named after him. Such models began to heat up very quickly. Edison's light bulbs are known today for the reason that he was able to patent his invention in time. In our country, light bulbs with incandescent rods began to be associated with the name of Lenin, because he was the first to supply Russia with economical electricity.

The first incandescent light bulb, along with cinematography, telephone and radio, was invented in the 19th century. In this case, it is impossible to say for sure who invented the first incandescent lamp, since this process followed several paths at once over a long period of time.

Who first invented the light bulb

Work on the first and incandescent lamps took place independently, in different countries and at different times. The first experiments were carried out by the Englishman Delarue in 1809, when he managed to construct the very first device equipped with a platinum thread.

Following this, a coal lamp appeared, created by the Belgian Jobard in 1838, and in 1854, the German Heinrich Hebel first used a vessel with a vacuum inside.

The vacuum vessel was finally patented in 1860 by the Englishman Joseph Wilson Swan. However, there were technical difficulties in obtaining a vacuum, therefore, its light bulb was characterized by low efficiency and fragility.

In 1874-1875, Russian engineers Lodygin and Didrikhson produced a lamp with an incandescent filament from a carbon rod placed in a vessel with a vacuum. In one of the designs, several threads were used, duplicating each other when burned out.

In parallel, the same experiments with incandescent light bulbs were carried out by Thomas Edison in the late 70s of the 19th century. He managed to create a lighting device with a service life of up to 40 hours. These lamps replaced gas lighting. Lodygin's improved lamps began to contain in their design tungsten or molybdenum filaments twisted in the shape of a spiral. Better pumping of air from glass flasks was carried out, thereby protecting the threads from premature oxidation and failure.

By the early 20th century, the incandescent light bulb had taken on the final forms that are still in use today. Despite the huge variety of models, the main structural elements in them are exactly the same.

Incandescent lamp elements

Despite the fact that the question of who invented the light bulb remains open, this device ultimately acquired the features that we are accustomed to seeing to this day.

The main element of the lamp is a glass bulb that protects the filament from external influences. The dimensions of the flask depend on the speed at which the spiral material is deposited on the glass. The inside of the bulb of most lamps is filled with inert gases. Vacuum is found in the bulbs of light bulbs with low power.

The filament is made in the form of a spiral of round or ribbon wire. has a thread that differs structurally, depending on the purpose of a particular lamp.