Party over for the incandescent lamp?

For thousands of years people relied on flames to provide light at night. Even today people without access to electricity use candles, lamps and lanterns as light sources. The arrival of practical sources of electricity during the latter half of the nineteenth century led to lights that did not require an open flame. By far the most successful of these light sources was the incandescent lamp developed by Thomas Edison in 1879. The previous year Edison was so confident that he could develop a practical electric light that he formed the Edison Electric Light Company at his Menlo Park, NJ, laboratory.