Joseph Swan

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (31 October 1828–27 May 1914) was an English physicist and chemist who was well known because he created the incandescent light bulb, about a year before Thomas Edison.  His house was the first in the world to be lit by electric light bulbs.

In 1904, Swan was knighted, awarded the Royal Society's Hughes Medal, and was made an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society. He had already received the highest award in France, the Légion d'honneur, when he visited an international exhibition in Paris in 1881. The exhibition included exhibits of his inventions, and the city was lit with electric light, thanks to Swan's invention.

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Category:1828 births
Category:1914 deaths

Category:English inventors
Category:English physicists
Category:English chemists
Category:People from Sunderland
Category:Recipients of the Order of the Legion of Honour