Fact 4: Thomas Edison did not invent the lightbulb.

Allow me to light up your world by telling you that Thomas Edison did not invent the lightbulb. You should know that there were at least 20 different inventors across the globe that drafted various patents on it. Why call someone the inventor of something when that person is not the first creator of an invention? 

There is a big difference between a person that creates something from zero to a person that improves it. In the case of the lightbulb, Edison did just that, he only improved on it.

History tells us that as early as 1806, a man named Humphrey Davy introduced an electric lamp to the Royal Society in England. He is historically the first person to talk about a light bulb. His problem was that he couldn't make it stay lit for very long at all.

After Davy, in 1841, Frederick DeMoleyns enclosed his burner in a glass bulb. Followed by an American, J.W. Starr, who actually got a patent using a vacuum and a carbon burner. History repeats itself with Joseph Swan, who experimented with burners, but none of them worked for any length of time either.

So, you can see that many men were already working on this invention at the time when Edison presented his light bulb to society. The difference lies in the fact that Edison put his focus on making the light bulb stay lit for longer time. His goal was to make it affordable enough that it could be produced for the masses.

Edison decided to develop a filament with high resistance which would light up without destroying it, which made it more economically feasible to create light bulbs. This was in 1880, when he started using long bamboo burners, which could burn for up to 600 hours.

Knowing all these facts, it's very hard to deny it. Thomas Edison was not the first creator of the light bulb. Perhaps, what contributed to him being awarded with the honor of being called its inventor was his name itself. He was already known for many other inventions, people knew of him and expected him to come up with brilliant inventions, no pun intended!

One could argue that the inventor is the person that actually gets a patent and legal acknowledgement as creator of an artifact. One could also say that Edison was the first one to make a light bulb that could be of any use by making it last a long time.  Sure, such things sound good, but it has to be remembered that by definition the word inventor means creator, which implies being the first one to come up with an original idea and actually making it into effect.

Edison's contribution to the planet is great, he accomplished a huge dream of many. He literally lit up our world. Yet, it wasn't by inventing the light bulb, but better said, by extending the hours in which you and I, enjoy turning off the darkness.