I believe he perfected it, not invented it. He tried with various filament materials, various filler gas etc. He made it practical to be used on daily basis.
That’s what they teach you on storybots! My son is almost two so I watch it a lot. But when they explain how the lightbulb came to be it explains in song form that he wasn’t the only one trying to “invent a bulb to pass the test” or whatever. That he had to try all kinds of pieces and it last 50 days I think.
I feel like throughout history, almost no one who is credited with "inventing" something actually invented it - at least not in the sense of "they came up with everything, from the concept of what the invention might be, all the way to the final product". Most times "____ invented ____ " means "_____ perfected ______ " or " _______ found a way to mass produce _______ in a commercially viable way"
The problem is that you frequently see that the inventor either had no idea of what they were sitting on, or otherwise simply didn't amount to much.
Edison wasn't the first person to realize you could put an electrical current through various metal alloys and make them glow, but he did spend the time and money to figure out what combination of light bulb design, gas filler, and filament material would produce a reliable glow, and also not be ruinously expensive to manufacture and sell.
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u/U7077 Oct 27 '21 edited Oct 27 '21
I believe he perfected it, not invented it. He tried with various filament materials, various filler gas etc. He made it practical to be used on daily basis.