Why the light bulb's invention was more slow burn than bright spark

The light bulb moment in the development of the light bulb was actually a long time coming. Many of us think it was American inventor Thomas Edison who came up with the idea, but he was simply the canniest. He knew how to promote the invention. The idea of an electrical current being used to create light was first demonstrated in the early 1800s, when British scientist Humphry Davy showed what happened when an electrical current was passed between two wires coated in carbon. The light was so intense and so hot that it couldn't be used domestically. But the idea of arc lamps, as they're now called, is still used today in floodlights and street lamps.