Inspiration Behind Your Battery Flashlight

If you creep down the stairs with your flashlight this Christmas morning, to check everything is ready for the kids, spare a thought for Joseph Swan. For he made the first incandescent light bulb, although Edison deserves the credit for the first portable dry cell battery. Read on to learn more about the inspiration behind your battery flashlight.

Joseph Swan Who Inspired Your Battery Flashlight

Joseph Swan began his life in Surrey, England in 1828, far, far away from where Thomas Edison was born 1847, in Milan Ohio. Swan served as a pharmacist’s apprentice in his youth, spending his spare time exploring local industry, and reading books in the town library.

Swan continued with in pharmacist role, while working on an incandescent light bulb project in his spare time. He demonstrated a successful device in 1860, using carbonized paper filaments. Although this did not have a long life due to an imperfect vacuum, and the quality of the electricity supply.

Joseph Swan set his project aside while he developed an improved vacuum pump. Wikipedia says that both he and Edison used this pump to create a vacuum in their carbon filament lamps. Meanwhile Swan, the inspiration behind your battery flashlight for today, began installing his improved incandescent lamps in public places.

Two Independent Paths Lead to a Commercial Light Bulb

Thomas Edison presented his first working incandescent light bulb to the public on December 31, 1879. However Joseph Swan, working independently, was not far behind. One of his improved light bulbs lit up a public library on 20 October 1880.

Swan formed The Swan Electric Light Company Ltd in Newcastle, England, and was manufacturing incandescent light bulbs by the beginning of 1881. But he must have remained in contact with Edison, because it was not long before his business became the joint venture Edison and Swan United Company.

So who do you think really was the inspiration behind your battery flashlight? Could Edison have been first past the post without Swan’s vacuum pump? Or was it a case of the winner takes all? We will probably never know. Perhaps that’s why the two men decided to collaborate.