Artifact #18

Historic Edison Collection

Most Famous Lamps in the World

Famous Edison Lamp Collection DISCOVERED After Century in Darkness

Artifact 18 -This beautiful lamp was made by Sir Joseph Swan in 1881. A string tag label is attached to the socket, the tag has a hand written note by William H. Meadowcroft, the note states, "Swan Lamp & Socket, Paris Elec. Exh. 1881, Rec'd fr. H. Edmunds 1881." William Henry Meadowcroft was the New York County Notary who notarized the Edison evidence used in 1883 in the court trial - "Edison vs. Maxim vs. Swan." Meadowcroft later went to work for Edison and became his liaison, publicist, and personal secretary for half a century. The man who sent the lamp to Edison was Henry Edmunds, a British engineer and Sir Joseph Swan's partner in the Swan electric lamp business. Edmunds was in charge of installing and displaying the Swan Lamp System at the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition. This is the only lamp of its kind known to exist. Edmunds sent this magnificent artifact to Edison from the great 60 lamp Swan Chandelier which illuminated the beautiful Victorian Opera Theatre, the main feature of the Paris Exhibition.

The lamp has a long thin glass base that fits into the wood cylinder sleeve (see Swan Lamp Stem - artifact 23). The wood sleeve has two brass thumb-clips mounted on the outside of the sleeve. The brass clips slide into brass channels mounted to the fruit wood socket base. The thumb clips lock the lamp in place and make electric contact. The words "Swan's Patent" are stamped into the brass. Joseph Swan, the English inventor, chemist and electrician began his experiments on the electric incandescent carbon lamp in the 1860's. His earliest experimental lamps gave off light but did not last very long. Vacuum pumps at that time were not capable of drawing out the small pockets of air trapped in his carbon filaments. The result, the carbon burned up quickly and left dark deposits of soot on the inner surface of the lamp glass. A decade later vacuum pump technology had improved and Joseph Swan perfected his carbon filament electric incandescent lamp during the same year as Edison. In February 1879, Swan demonstrated his lamp successfully in a lecture to the Newcastle Chemical Society. Edison's successful demonstration in the United States was in October of that same year. Swan's lamp contained most of the basic elements of the Edison lamp: enclosed glass bulb, a high vacuum, platinum lead-in wires, and a carbon light-emitting element. However, Swan's lamp at the time used a carbon element of low electrical resistance which required high current (a thick wire) in order to illuminate. Edison used a carbon element of high electrical resistance which requires low current (a thin wire), ultimately this high resistance patented feature allowed greater commercial success. Once Joseph Swan learned about the high resistance filament feature, he developed his famous cellulose filament and formed the Swan Electric Light Company (February 1881). Swan had been granted British patents for certain other lamp features, which made Swan's patent position in England strong enough that in 1883 Edison and he decided to merge and form the the Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company Limited. For his great work, the British Monarch bestowed upon Joseph Wilson Swan the Knighthood title of "Sir."

2006 is this lamp's 125 th. Anniversary

Go To the Collection Group Exhibit

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