How Thomas Edison, Patron Saint Of Patent Holders, Copied Others' Works To 'Invent' The Light Bulb
from the funny-how-that-works dept
We've written in the past how Thomas Edison -- who is often held up by patent hoarders as the perfect example of why patents are necessary -- didn't actually invent any of the stuff he's famous for "inventing." Instead, he's most famous for taking the work of others and innovating around it just slightly, to find a good market -- but then also patenting the work of others and blocking anyone else from entering the market. I admire his innovative side and his marketing prowess, but find his abuse of patents to be unfortunate. Reader Michael points to a recent story in Wired which highlights how this worked with the incandescent lightbulb.The story highlights how the incandescent lightbulb was really a function of progressive innovation, with different people adding little bits here and there:
English chemist Humphry Davy connected two wires to a battery in 1809 and inserted a charcoal strip between the other ends of the wires. The strip glowed, making it the first electric lamp.From there, it details how Joseph Swan built the first real "electric lamp" building on those concepts. Swan did get a patent on his work, but it didn't actually work all that well. Edison's revelation was to make a minor tweak to Swan's work, making the incandescent bulb last much longer. It wasn't an "invention" at all. It was a minor tweak on top of it, and then a massive promotional campaign. Of course, Edison originally couldn't do as much with his better lightbulb, because Swan held that patent... so eventually Edison ended up merging with Swan's company... and took all the credit for the incandescent bulb. And from then on, he used patents to keep everyone else out for as long as possible.
Inventor Warren De la Rue about 10 years later enclosed a platinum coil in an evacuated tube and passed electric current through it to make it glow.
Filed Under: inventions, lightbulb, patents, thomas edison
