Debunked Myths

Thomas Edison's name is synonymous with the light bulb, but his genius lay in creating the first commercially viable system, not the original invention. By the time Edison began his work in 1878, the concept of electric incandescence was decades old. Inventors like Joseph Swan in England had working light bulbs and even lit his house with them.

Edison's monumental achievement was solving all the practical problems simultaneously. He and his Menlo Park team tested thousands of materials to find a long-lasting, high-resistance filament. More importantly, he developed the entire ecosystem: parallel-circuit wiring, durable vacuums, generators, sockets, and switches.

He didn't just invent a bulb; he invented an entire industry that could deliver safe, reliable lighting to homes and businesses. Edison's story represents the classic innovator who perfects and markets an idea rather than the lone genius who conceives it from nothing. It highlights the crucial difference between a laboratory demonstration and a technology that changes the world.