Joseph Swan
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan Tyne And Wear, England | |
---|---|
Died | 27 May 1914 Warlingham, Surrey, England | (aged 85)
Nationality | British |
Known for | Incandescent light bulb Photographic process |
Awards | Hughes Medal (1904) Albert Medal (1906) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics, Chemistry |
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan FRS (31 October 1828 – 27 May 1914) was an English physicist, chemist, and inventor. He is known as an independent early developer of a successful incandescent light bulb, and is the person responsible for developing and supplying the first incandescent lights used to illuminate homes and public buildings, including the Savoy Theatre, London, in 1881.[1][2]
In 1904, Swan was knighted by King Edward VII,[3] awarded the Royal Society's Hughes Medal, and was made an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society. He had received the highest decoration in France, the Legion of Honour, when he visited the 1881 International Exposition of Electricity, Paris. The exhibition included displays of his inventions, and the city was lit with his electric lighting.[4]
Early life
Joseph Wilson Swan was born in 1828 at Pallion Hall in Pallion, in the Parish of Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, County Durham. His parents were John Swan and Isabella Cameron.[5]
Swan was apprenticed for six years to a
Swan subsequently joined Mawson's, a firm of manufacturing chemists in Newcastle upon Tyne, started in the year of Swan's birth by John Mawson[4] (9 September 1819 – 17 December 1867), the husband of his sister, Elizabeth Swan (22 November 1822 – 2 August 1905). In 1846, Swan was offered a partnership at Mawson's.[4] This company subsequently existed as Mawson, Swan, and Morgan until 1973, formerly located on Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne, near Grey's Monument. The premises, now occupied by fashion retailer END., can be identified by a line of Victorian-style electric street lamps in front of the store on Grey Street.
Swan lived at
Electric light
In 1850, Swan began working on a light bulb using
In 1875, Swan returned to consider the problem of the light bulb with the aid of a better vacuum and a carbonised thread as a filament. The most significant feature of Swan's improved lamp was that there was little residual oxygen in the vacuum tube to ignite the filament, thus allowing the filament to glow almost white-hot without catching fire. However, his filament had low resistance, thus needing heavy copper wires to supply it.[14]
Swan first publicly demonstrated his incandescent carbon lamp at a lecture for the Newcastle upon Tyne Chemical Society on 18 December 1878. However, after burning with a bright light for some minutes in his laboratory, the lamp broke down owing to excessive current. On 17 January 1879 this lecture was successfully repeated with the lamp shown in actual operation; Swan had solved the problem of incandescent electric lighting by means of a vacuum lamp. On 3 February 1879 he publicly demonstrated a working lamp to an audience of over seven hundred people in the lecture theatre of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, Sir William Armstrong of Cragside presiding. Swan turned his attention to producing a better carbon filament, and the means of attaching its ends. He devised a method of treating cotton to produce "parchmentised thread", and obtained British Patent 4933 on 27 November 1880.[15] From that time he began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England.
His house,
The
The first private residence, other than the inventor's, lit by the new incandescent lamp was that of his friend, Sir William Armstrong at Cragside, near Rothbury, Northumberland. Swan personally supervised the installation there in December 1880. Swan had formed "The Swan Electric Light Company Ltd" with a factory at Benwell, Newcastle, and had established the first commercial manufacture of incandescent lightbulbs by the beginning of 1881.
Swan's carbon rod lamp and carbon filament lamp, while functional, were still relatively impractical owing to low resistance (needing very expensive thick copper wiring) and short running life.[14][26] While searching for a better filament for his light bulb, Swan inadvertently made another advance. In 1881, he developed and patented a process for squeezing nitrocellulose through holes to form conducting fibres. His newly established company (which by merger eventually became the Edison and Swan United Company) used Swan's cellulose filaments in their bulbs. The textile industry has also used this process.[5][27]
The first ship to use Swan's invention was The City of Richmond, owned by the Inman Line. She was fitted with incandescent lamps in June 1881. The Royal Navy also introduced them to its ships soon after; with HMS Inflexible having the new lamps installed in the same year.[28] An early employment in engineering was during the digging of the Severn Tunnel, where the contractor Thomas Walker installed "20-candlepower lamps" in the temporary pilot tunnels.[29]
Swan was one of the early developers of the electric safety lamp for miners, exhibiting his first in Newcastle upon Tyne at the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers on 14 May 1881.[30] This required a wired supply, so the following year, he presented one with a battery[31] and other improved versions followed.[32] By 1886, a lamp with better light output than a flame safety lamp was in production by the Edison-Swan Company.[33] However, it suffered from problems of reliability and was not a success. It took development by others over the next 20 years or so before effective electric lamps were in common use.[34]
Conjunction with Edison
In what are considered to be independent lines of inquiry, Swan's incandescent electric lamp was developed at the same time that Thomas Edison was working on his incandescent lamp,[35] with Swan's first successful lamp and Edison's lamp both patented in 1880.[1][36] Edison's goal in developing his lamp was for it to be used as one part of a much larger system: a long-life high-resistance lamp that could be connected in parallel to work economically with the large-scale electric-lighting utility he was creating.[37][35] Swan's original lamp design, with its low resistance (the lamp could be used only in series) and short life span, was not suited for such an application.[35] Swan's strong patents in Great Britain led, in 1883, to the two competing companies merging to exploit both Swan's and Edison's inventions,[28] with the establishment of the Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company. Known commonly as "Ediswan", the company sold lamps made with a cellulose filament that Swan had invented in 1881, while the Edison Company continued using bamboo filaments outside of Britain. In 1892, General Electric (GE) began exploiting Swan's patents to produce cellulose filaments, until they were replaced in 1904 by a GE developed "General Electric Metallized" (GEM) baked cellulose filaments.[38]
In 1886, Ediswan moved production to a former
Photography
When working with wet photographic plates, Swan noticed that heat increased the sensitivity of the silver bromide emulsion. By 1871, he had devised a method of using dry plates, and substituting nitrocellulose plastic for glass plates, thus initiating the age of convenience in photography. Eight years later, he patented bromide paper, developments of which are still used for black-and-white photographic prints.
In 1864, Swan patented the transfer process for making carbon prints, a permanent photographic process. By adding the transfer step, Swan was able easily to make photographs with a full tonal range.
Honours
In 1894, Swan was elected a
In 1945, the London Power Company commemorated Swan by naming a new 1,554 GRT coastal collier SS Sir Joseph Swan.[28][46]
Personal life
Swan married firstly Frances "Fanny" White, third daughter of William White, of
Swan died in 1914 at his home in Overhill, Warlingham, Surrey.[9] The funeral took place at All Saints' Church, Warlingham, on 30 May 1914, with interment taking place in the churchyard.[51] Mourners included representatives of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Royal Society.[52]
References
- ^ OCLC 869343342.
- ^ ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
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- ^ a b c d e f g "Pharmacy — the mother of invention? — Sir Joseph Swan (1828–1914)". RPSGB.org.uk. Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB). Archived from the original on 24 September 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2010.
Swan made groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of electric lighting and photography. He had already received the Legion of Honour 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.
- ^ a b Davidson, Michael W., and The Florida State University. "Molecular Expressions. Science, optics and you. Pioneers in optics. Joseph Swan (1828–1914)." Last modification 26 February 2004. Retrieved 16 November 2009
- ^ Plumley, Jon. "Joseph Swan: Biography". www.kstc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
- ^ Newton, Douglas (26 October 1978). "Light and likeness". New Scientist. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- ^ a b Electrical times, Volume 145 p. 220. Retrieved 30 December 2010
- ^ Gale CS202441404. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- OCLC 1052544488.
- ^ Sprengel, Hermann (1865). "III. Researches on the vacuum". Journal of the Chemical Society. 18: 9–21.
- ^ Thompson, Silvanus P. (1888). The development of the mercurial air-pump. London: E. & F.N. Spon. pp. 19.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-9482-4. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- ^ a b "Lighting A Revolution: Joseph W. Swan". americanhistory.si.edu. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
- ^ Swan K. R. Sir Joseph Swan and the Invention of the incandescent electric lamp. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1946 pp. 21–25
- ^ "Tale of tragedy behind the triumphs of Joseph Swan". The Journal. 11 December 2016. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ Glover, Andrew (8 February 2011). "Alexander Armstrong in appeal to save Lit and Phil". The Journal. Archived from the original on 15 February 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
The society's lecture theatre was the first public room to be lit by electric light, during a lecture by Sir Joseph Swan on October 20, 1880.
- ^ History in pictures – The Lit & Phil, BBC. Retrieved 8 August 2011
- ^ "Ideafinder.com, Light Bulb History, accessed 17 July 2012". Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
- ^ Chirnside, R.C. Sir Joseph Wilson Swan FRS Newcastle upon Tyne: Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne 1979
- ^ Burgess, Michael. "Richard D'Oyly Carte", The Savoyard, January 1975, pp. 7–11
- ^ "The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 3 October 1881
- OCLC 222542339. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ "Richard D'Oyly Carte" Archived 13 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine, at the Lyric Opera San Diego website, June 2009
- ^ Description of lightbulb experiment in The Times, 29 December 1881
- ^ Ganapati, Priya. "Dec. 18, 1878: Let There Be Light — Electric Light". Wired. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
- ^ "Joseph Wilson Swan". Timmonetk. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
- ^ a b c Sir Josepth Swan and the Invention of the Incandescent Electric Lamp by Kenneth R. Swan 1948
- ^ Walker, Thomas A (1888). The Severn Tunnel Its Construction and Difficulties. London: Richard Bentley and Son. p. 73.
- ^ Swan. J.W. Swan's electric light Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 30, 1881, 149–159
- ^ Swan, J.W. On an electric safety lamp, with portable secondary battery Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 31 1881-2, 117–9
- ^ Swan, J.W. On an improved electric safety lamp for miners Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 36 1886-7, 3–11
- ^ Discussion on electric lamps Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 36 1886-7 55 – 59
- OCLC 28220773.
- ^ a b c Maury Klein, The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America, Bloomsbury Publishing USA — 2010, Chapter 9 — The Cowbird, The Plugger, and the Dreamer
- ^ "Thomas Edison's Patent Application for the Light Bulb (1880)". National Archives. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
- ^ David O. Whitten, Bessie Emrick Whitten, Handbook of American Business History: Manufacturing, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990, pages 315-316
- ^ Incandescent Lamps, History of the Incandescent Light (1802 — today), EdisonTechCenter.org Archived 14 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Pam, D. (1977),The New Enfield: Stories of Enfield Edmonton and Southgate, a Jubilee History, London Borough of Enfield Libraries, Arts & Entertainment Dept
- ISBN 1-86077-190-4
- ^ "Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson: certificate of election to the Royal Society". Royal Society Archives. Royal Society. 1894. EC/1894/20. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36573. London. 30 September 1901. p. 4.
- ^ "SCI Presidents".
- OCLC 247620448.
- ^ Covington, Edward J. "Sir Joseph Wilson Swan". LampTech: Museum of Electric Lamp Technology. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- ^ Anderson, James B (2008). Sommerville, Iain (ed.). "Ships built by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd: arranged by date of launch". Welcome to Burntisland. Iain Sommerville. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
- ^ "Marriages". Newcastle Journal. 12 August 1862. p. 3. Retrieved 11 April 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Deaths". Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury. 11 January 1868. p. 8. Retrieved 11 April 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Marriages". Newcastle Courant. 13 October 1871. p. 8. Retrieved 11 April 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Gale CS322140495. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ "The Late Sir Joseph W. Swan". Newcastle Journal. 1 June 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 11 April 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Gale CS185402049. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
Further reading
- Swan, M. E.; Swan, K. R. (1929). Sir Joseph Wilson Swan FRS: inventor and scientist. ISBN 978-0853620488.
- Clouth, D. E. (1979). Joseph Swan 1828–1914: A pictorial account of a North Eastern scientist's life and work. ISBN 978-0905977072.
External links
- Tyne & Wear Archives Service Archived 5 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine Joseph Swan collection
- Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. .
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.