Full name: Joseph Swan Born: 31st October 1828 Invention/Achievement: The electric light bulb Date of introduction/Achievement: First light bulb patent granted 1860 Died:  27th May 1914

It's difficult to imagine life before Joseph Swan invented the incandescent electric light bulb.  Although gas lights had been used since the late 18^th century, most houses were lit by candles or oil lamps and for those few with piped gas supplies, gas lighting was dirty, dangerous and cumbersome.  The incandescent lamp meant that night could be transformed into day at the flick of a switch.  

Born in Bishopwearmouth in 1828, Joseph Swan was known as an enquiring and inventive youth.  In 1850 he designed his first light bulb, using a carbonised paper filament in an evacuated glass bulb.  Although in 1860 he was granted a British patent, problems with the electricity supply and vacuum made it impractical.  

Fifteen years later he had addressed the vacuum problem and incorporated a filament that could burn white hot to give more light.  Swan was granted a patent in 1878 and soon his lamps were being installed in homes (including his own) around Britain.  

London's Savoy Theatre was entirely lit by 1,200 of Swan's electric lamps.  In the United States Thomas Edison was also working on incandescent lamps and had obtained a US patent for a modified version of Swan's lamp in 1879.  Swan took Edison to court and won, but came to an agreement with Edison for each to market the light bulb in their own countries.

In 1881 Swan produced an improved filament by squirting collodion - a solution of nitro-cellulose in a solution of alcohol and ether - into a coagulating solution and carbonising the resulting threads.

 In 1883 the Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company was formed using Swan's new filament and this soon became the industry standard.  Swan continued with his electrical developments in related fields.  He also made important advances in photography, in 1871 introducing dry plates and substituting nitro-cellulose for fragile glass plates.  In 1879 he patented bromide photographic paper, versions of which are still used today.  

Swan was repeatedly honoured, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1894, receiving the French Legion d'honneur and a knighthood from King Edward VII in 1904.  He died aged 85 in 1914.