Article replaced 2011
The article was replaced between January 28, 2011 and February 14, 2011. The old one was a stub. The content is a shortened version of the article in the de.wikipedia. ( I am one of two main editors of that article.)  In the de.wikipedia there are more details about the claims of Henry Goebel concerning his alleged work in the field of constructing electric lamps between 1854 and 1880 in New York, more details about technical reasons and other reasons supporting the thesis of a fraudulent defense and more details about the development of the legend.  If you want to have more details  or more references or if there is any other criticism, please give your comment here.

I kindly ask you to take care of language improvements.