Who really invented the light bulb?

American inventor Thomas Edison is credited with devising the first practical light bulb in 1879. However, the story of the incandescent light bulb is not that straightforward, as it involved multiple scientists, who each made their contribution that eventually led to Edison’s crowning achievement: an affordable, durable, and safe incandescent lightbulb that could generate light for many hours.

In order to find the origins the lightbulb, we need to travel back in time more than 200 years to the lab of Humphry Davy, a prolific English chemist and inventor. In the year 1800, Davy attached two wires to a battery and two charcoal sticks at the other end, producing a bright arc of light between the charcoal electrodes.