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| Joseph Wilson Swan circa 1850 |
Birth Name: Joseph Wilson Swan
Occupation: chemist, physicist, developer, inventor
Born: October 31, 1828 in Pallion Hall, Pallion, County Durham, England
Died: May 27, 1914, age 85, in Surrey, England
Apprenticed for 6 years with pharmacists Hudson and Osbaldiston at age 14. They died before the 6 years was up. He changed fields to photography.
Parents:
John Swan (1795-1878) and Isabella Cameron Swan, 9 children
Marriages:
- Married in 1862 - Frances White (1830-1868)
They had 3 children: Donald Cameron (1863-1951), Mary Edmonds (1864-?) and Joseph Henry (1866 -?)
- Married in 1871 - Hannah White (1836-1918),
They had 5 children: Hilda (1873-1968), Frances Isobel (1875-1941), Kenneth Raydon (1877-1973), Percival (1879-1964), Dorothy (1881 -?)
- One daughter out of wedlock: Rose Swan Stoney (1850- ?)
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Although he laid claim to anything to do with electricity, Thomas Edison wasn't the only inventor working on the light bulb. In 1800, English-born Humphrey Davy is credited with inventing the electric light bulb.
Well-known British chemist Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Edison never met or spoke to each other before Swan's invention of the incandescent lamp. Each was aware they were working on similar projects but that was the extent of it. Swan experimented in the 1850s and 1860s with carbon filaments but when his early efforts failed, he put them aside for a few years to concentrate on photography.
Joseph Swan's sister Elizabeth was married to successful chemist John Mawson and in 1846 he offered Swan a partnership in his manufacturing company. Renamed Mawson, Swan and Morgan, the company was located on Grey Street in a huge Victorian-style building, but there was no room for Swan to conduct experiments in Mawson's laboratory, so he built a large conservatory in his home at Newcastle.
In 1850, a daughter named Rose was born. Her mother's name is unknown but the child was given his last name of Swan. She married an engineer named Edward Waller Stoney (1844-1931). They had no children. Her date of death is unknown but must have been before 1876 because Edward Stoney married his second wife Sarah in 1876 and they had 4 children.
In Mawson's laboratory, Swan developed collodion, a flammable solution used on photograph plates. It was bottled and sold under the name "Mawson's Collodion." In 1867, John Mawson was killed while supervising the disposal of residual nitroglycerin.
By 1860, he was ready to demonstrate his working device and to obtain a patent for it. However, the equipment that was used to create a vacuum was inferior and Swan’s light bulb was of poor quality so his invention had a short life.
In 1862, he married Frances White and they had three children. Frances died in 1868.
In 1871, he married Frances's sister Hannah and they had five children.
In 1875, he resumed experimenting with a better vacuum using a carbonized thread as filament for his incandescent lamp.
In 1878, he received a British patent for his improved incandescent lamp and he announced his success while speaking at the Newcastle Chemical Society.
In February 1879, he demonstrated a working lamp which was not unlike Thomas Edison's because it had most of the same components: enclosed glass light bulb, platinum lead wires, and a carbon element.
In 1880, he made his filaments less flammable and perfected the vacuum of oxygen. He was awarded British Patent #4933 on November 27, 1880 and began installing light bulbs in homes and public buildings in England. His home was the first in the world to have working light bulbs. In 1881, he started The Swan Electric Light Company and began commerical production.
In 1881, Swan was the first to supply and install incandescent lights in private homes and public buildings including the Savoy Theatre in London in 1881.
Thomas Edison was busy at work trying to improve on Swan's original incandescent lamp, so Swan allowed Edison to hold the patent for manufacturing and distribution in the United States while he held the patents in Great Britain.
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| Edison and Swan Merger |
Thomas Edison was credit-hoarding inventor who sued people at the drop of a hat for anything to do with his inventions. Claiming credit for projects was important to him as was having his name associated with everything from development to final invention. By the time he died, he had over 1,000 patents and probably would have had another thousand had he lived longer.
Joseph Swan held over 70 patents and although he wasn't a credit-hoarder, it was important to him that his name be credited with projects where he did the work.
So it should come as no surprise in 1882 when Thomas Edison sued Joseph Swan in United States courts for infringement of Edison's 1879 US Patent. However, he lost because Joseph Swan was able to provide all of his research and publications. Thomas Edison wasn't in the least bit happy that the US Patents Office ruled against him.
Then a few months later, Joseph Swan sued Thomas Edison in Great Britain's courts for infringement and Swan won again. As part of the settlement, the court forced Thomas Edison and Swan to join forces.
As part of the court order, Swan and Edison merged their companies in 1883 to form the Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company, referred to as "Ediswan." The company produced and sold the cellulose filament bulbs that Swan had invented. Thomas Edison eventually bought out Swan's share and became he sole owner of the company.
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| Announcing Edison-Swan merger |
Although Swan invented the incandescent light bulb using the works of previous inventors, Thomas Edison perfected it using the research and publication work of Joseph Swan.
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| Joseph Swan's conservatory |
Swan's in-home conservatory was lighted by his invention
Swan also helped to develop a process for carbon printing that allowed photographs to be made. He received a patent for his invention of the dry plate process and bromide paper.
Altogether, Swan's patents were mostly in photography and about a dozen patents were for electric bulbs and devices.
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| Swan’s home in Gateshead was the world’s first home to have electricity. |
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| Swan and Edison knew about each other's projects |
Swan also developed a safety lamp for use in the mines which was improved over the years by others before being fit for widespread use.
Sir Joseph Swan was elected to the Royal Society in 1894. In 1904 he was knighted and presented with the Royal Society’s Hughes Medal. He died on May 27, 1914 in Surrey England at the age of 85.
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