History of
LED Lighting

When was the gas lamp invented?

Gas lighting dates back to the early 19th century. Initially distrusted, few homes were lit with gas in its first 50 years but, most streets in London, England, were lit by gas as early as 1816. Gas lighting of building and streets carried on from there.

When was the first kerosene lamp invented?

Abraham Pineo Gesner invented a new substitute for whale oil for lighting, distilled from coal in 1846. Kerosene became a popular lighting fuel and was later made from petroleum. Modern versions of the kerosene lamp were constructed by a Polish inventor, Ignacy Łukasiewicz, in 1853.

When was the first lamp invented?

In 1875, Henry Woodward patented an electric light bulb. In 1876, Pavel Yablochkov invented the first practical carbon arc lamp, named after him as the Yablochkov candle, used for public street lighting in Paris. Later, in 1879, Thomas Edison and Joseph Wilson Swan patented the carbon-thread incandescent lamp.

Incandescent light bulb

What was the first light bulb made of?

The first practical incandescent light bulb was created by Thomas Edison and his research team. They filed a patent, in November of 1879, for an electric lamp with a carbon filament, after testing more than 3,000 designs in their Menlo Park, N.J., laboratory.

Thomas Edison

Inventor Thomas Edison created such great innovations as the electric light bulb and the phonograph. A savvy businessman, he held more than 1,000 patents for his inventions.

Who invented the LED bulb?

Nick Holonyak Jr. is credited with inventing the LED (light-emitting diode) bulb while working at General Electric Company's research laboratory in Syracuse, New York, in 1962. Holonyak initially created an LED bulb that emitted visible red light instead of infrared light.