Show me logo

Thomas Edison Victorian inventor: homework help

Are you doing a project on a famous Victorian?

Screenshot from the Science Museum film on YouTube about Thomas Edison and there is a black and white photo of Edison sitting down and wearing a suit and a thought bubble is there showing an old fashioned telephone.


How about American scientist, inventor and businessman Thomas Edison (1847-1931)?

The Science Museum has some great Thomas Edison stuff.

Watch their YouTube video all about how Thomas Edison redesigned the telephone:

The Science Museum also has Thomas Edison's light bulb invention in its collection.



Click on the link and you can see more photos on the Science Museum website.

Edison's Filament Lamp, 1879, Science Museum image number 10276213. Photo © Science Museum, London

 Photo showing the light bulb invented by Thomas Edison and this copy is in the Science Museum.

On 27 January, 1880 Edison was granted a patent for his electric light bulb.

The light bulb, or Edison filament lamp as it was known, has one loop of carbon filament which glows when a current of electricity passes through it.

This lamp in the Science Museum collection was made one year after Joseph Swan's original 1878-1879 electric light bulb.

But both lamps were already out of date by 1883 when Swan and Edison started their successful Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company in Britain.

Find more Victorian info on our Show Me Victorian Topic page.