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Thomas A. Edison stands with a replica of his first successful incandescent lamp, which gave 16 candlepower of illumination, the earliest precursor to today's 50,000 watt, or 150,000 candlepower, lamps.

托马斯·a·爱迪生站在他的第一个成功的白炽灯的复制品旁，它提供了16个蜡烛的照明功率，这是今天5万瓦或15万蜡烛功率的灯的最早前身。

It is no exaggeration to say that the incandescent light bulb changed human civilization. With the advent of light bulbs, people could suddenly work and recreate deep into the night without relying on open flame (and its attendant heat, smoke and inherent danger) to illuminate a room.

毫不夸张地说，白炽灯改变了人类文明。随着灯泡的出现，人们突然可以在深夜工作和娱乐，而不用依靠明火(及其伴随的热量、烟雾和固有的危险)来照亮房间。

While the impact of the electric light bulb is without dispute, the origins of the invention tend to be more open for debate. Conventional wisdom gives the credit to American Thomas Alva Edison, who obtained the earliest patents for incandescent light bulbs, the first in 1879 and the second in 1880. Yet some historians argue that it's far too reductive to give Edison all the credit. They posit that Edison was the one who invented the light bulb, but it was simply one in a long string of similar inventions.

虽然电灯泡的影响是无可争议的，但这项发明的起源却有更多的争议。传统观点认为，这要归功于美国人托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生，他获得了最早的白炽灯专利，第一项专利是在1879年，第二项专利是在1880年。然而，一些历史学家认为，把所有的功劳都归给爱迪生未免过于简单化了。他们假定爱迪生是发明灯泡的人，但它只是一长串类似发明中的一个。

Others say that while Edison's electric light bulbs did stand out from their forebears, even more credit should go to British inventor Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, who worked on incandescent lamps at the same time and later partnered with Edison. And yet another set of historians argue that this revisionist history is an overcorrection, and Edison is indeed the rightful inventor of the light bulb. So what is the answer?

还有人说，虽然爱迪生的电灯泡确实比他们的祖先更突出，但更多的功劳应该归功于英国发明家约瑟夫·威尔逊·斯旺爵士，他与爱迪生同时研究白炽灯，后来与爱迪生合作。然而，另一组历史学家认为，这种修正主义的历史是一种矫情，爱迪生确实是灯泡的合法发明者。那么答案是什么呢?

Contents 目录

1. Precursors to Thomas Edison's Electric Light Bulb 托马斯·爱迪生电灯泡的前身
2. Edison's Breakthrough to the Practical Light Bulb 爱迪生对实用灯泡的突破
3. Other Claimants to Inventing the Light Bulb 发明灯泡的其他申请人
4. So Who Really Invented the Light Bulb? 到底是谁发明了电灯泡?

Precursors to Thomas Edison's Electric Light Bulb 托马斯·爱迪生电灯泡的前身

To assess just how much credit Edison deserves for light bulb design, we must examine the work of inventors who came before him. At the turn of the 19th century, Italian inventor Alessandro Volta pioneered concepts in controlling an electrical current, culminating in his "voltaic pile" which effectively functioned as a battery. If Volta's name sounds familiar, it may be because the electrical measurement "volt" is named after him.

为了评估爱迪生在灯泡设计上值得多少赞誉，我们必须考察一下在他之前的发明家的工作。19世纪初，意大利发明家亚历山德罗·伏特(Alessandro Volta)率先提出了控制电流的概念，他的“伏打堆”(voltaic pile)有效地发挥了电池的功能。如果伏特的名字听起来很熟悉，那可能是因为电学测量“伏特”就是以他的名字命名的。

The voltaic pile inspired British chemist Humphry Davy to design a battery of his own and use it to power an arc lamp. The arc lamp did in fact produce visible light contained in a bulb, and since it debuted in 1806, Davy's invention beat Edison's by over seven decades. But Davy's arc lamp was extremely bright and hard to control, required a great deal of electric current and did not last long enough for practical home usage. While it found some utility as an outdoor streetlight, the electric arc lamp could not function as a lighting fixture in the home.

伏打电堆启发了英国化学家汉弗莱·戴维，他自己设计了一种电池，用它来为弧光灯供电。弧光灯实际上产生了包含在灯泡中的可见光，自1806年首次亮相以来，戴维的发明比爱迪生的发明早了70多年。但是戴维的弧光灯非常亮，很难控制，需要很大的电流，而且不能持续足够长的时间用于实际家庭使用。虽然它可以作为室外路灯使用，但电弧灯不能作为家庭照明设备使用。

Humphry Davy (1778–1829) invented a very early form of arc lamp, which produced light by an electric arc, also called a voltaic arc.

汉弗莱·戴维(1778-1829)发明了一种非常早期的弧光灯，它通过电弧产生光，也称为伏打弧。

Chemists after Davy came to understand that the key to a sustainable incandescent lamp was choosing a filament that, when exposed to an electrical current, could continually glow without burning out. Scottish scientist James Bowman Lindsay introduced a copper-filament light bulb in 1835, while British scientist Warren de la Rue presented a platinum-filament bulb in 1840. These light bulbs came well before Edison's, but they still lacked practicality.

戴维之后的化学家们逐渐认识到，可持续发展白炽灯的关键在于选择一种在电流作用下能够持续发光而不会烧坏的灯丝。苏格兰科学家詹姆斯·鲍曼·林赛在1835年发明了铜灯丝灯泡，而英国科学家沃伦·德拉鲁在1840年发明了铂灯丝灯泡。这些灯泡比爱迪生的灯泡早很多，但它们仍然缺乏实用性。

Lindsay's copper burned out too quickly, while de la Rue's platinum was too expensive, although platinum's high melting point provided a critical breakthrough. These designs also suffered from poor vacuum tube technology, which meant that gas could be trapped in the glass bulbs. This unwanted gas could interfere with the filament and make producing light more difficult.

林赛的铜烧得太快了，而德拉鲁的铂太贵了，尽管铂的高熔点提供了一个关键的突破。这些设计还受到真空管技术不足的影响，这意味着气体可能会被困在玻璃灯泡中。这种不必要的气体会干扰灯丝，使发光变得更加困难。

Edison's Breakthrough to the Practical Light Bulb 爱迪生对实用灯泡的突破

Thomas Edison was the inventor who finally cracked the code of a truly practical light bulb, but this only came after years of experimentation. Working in a company he called the Edison Electric Light Company, Edison developed a high-resistance cotton filament, which burned for over 14 hours in a test. It also consumed far less electricity than competing designs. Edison also benefited from the Sprengel air pump, invented in 1877, which greatly improved vacuum pump technology and allowed manufacturers to suck outside gasses out of a glass bulb. This, combined with the high electrical resistance of cotton, allowed filaments to burn far longer. Edison filed for his first patent in 1879, and the U.S. Patent Office granted it in January 1880. Edison would go on to found the Edison Illuminating Company.

托马斯·爱迪生是最终破解了真正实用灯泡密码的发明家，但这是在经过多年的实验之后才实现的。爱迪生在一家他称为爱迪生电灯公司的公司工作，他发明了一种高电阻棉丝，在一次测试中燃烧了14个多小时。它的耗电量也远低于竞争对手的设计。爱迪生还受益于1877年发明的斯普伦格尔气泵，它极大地改进了真空泵技术，使制造商能够从玻璃灯泡中吸出外界气体。这一点，再加上棉花的高电阻，让细丝燃烧的时间长得多。爱迪生于1879年申请了他的第一个专利，并于1880年1月获得了美国专利局的批准。爱迪生后来创立了爱迪生照明公司。

Note that Edison Illuminating Company was never part of General Electric, another company Edison founded. Rather, Edison Illuminating Company created the first electrical generating stations in America, which were operated under the name Edison Electric Illuminating Company. The company was later purchased by Consolidated Gas and is now a utility company called Consolidated Edison, or ConEd.
请注意，爱迪生照明公司从来不是爱迪生创立的另一家公司通用电气的一部分。相反，爱迪生照明公司创建了美国第一个发电站，这些发电站以爱迪生照明公司的名义运营。该公司后来被联合天然气公司收购，现在是一家名为联合爱迪生或ConEd的公用事业公司。

Robert Friedel, professor emeritus of history at the University of Maryland-College Park, submits it was Edison's emphasis on practicality and real-world usage that won him his status in the history of the light bulb. "Edison's was the first truly practical electric light for general use, and this is exactly what its inventor set out to make," explains Friedel. "He carefully identified all of the key qualifications for a successful rival to the alternatives ... reliability, longevity, economy and aesthetics. He deliberately set out to create an electric light that would check all these boxes — this is something no one else succeeded in doing."

马里兰大学帕克分校(University of Maryland-College Park)历史学名誉教授罗伯特•弗里德尔(Robert Friedel)认为，正是爱迪生对实用性和现实应用的重视，为他赢得了在灯泡史上的地位。弗里德尔解释说:“爱迪生的电灯是第一盏真正实用的、普遍使用的电灯，这正是它的发明者打算制造的东西。”“他仔细地确定了成为成功竞争对手的所有关键条件……可靠、长寿、经济、美观。他故意创造了一种电灯，可以检查所有这些盒子——这是别人没有成功做到的。”

Other Claimants to Inventing the Light Bulb 发明灯泡的其他申请人

Edison was one of several 1870s inventors working furiously to crack the code of sustainable incandescent lighting. American-British inventor Hiram Maxim tried to patent a light bulb at nearly the same time as Edison, but Maxim's patent was not granted by the U.S. Patent Office until July 1880. Harold H. Schobert, professor emeritus at Penn State University and author of "Energy and Society: An Introduction," recalls: "I used to tell my class that Maxim was so infuriated by this that he went home and invented the machine gun." Schobert emphasizes this was a joke, but indeed Maxim's machine gun is another invention with vast societal impact.

爱迪生是19世纪70年代努力破解可持续白炽灯密码的几位发明家之一。美英发明家海勒姆·马克西姆(Hiram Maxim)几乎与爱迪生同时尝试为灯泡申请专利，但马克西姆的专利直到1880年7月才被美国专利局批准。宾夕法尼亚州立大学名誉教授、《能源与社会:简介》一书的作者哈罗德·h·肖伯特回忆道:“我曾经告诉我的学生，马克西姆对此非常愤怒，以至于回家发明了机关枪。”舒伯特强调这是一个笑话，但马克沁的机枪确实是另一项具有巨大社会影响的发明。

Hiram Maxim (1840–1916) is pictured here in the April 1895 issue of Cassier's Magazine. He invented the Maxim automatic machine gun, which fired 770 rounds per minute.

海勒姆·马克西姆(1840-1916)摄于1895年4月的《卡西尔杂志》。他发明了马克沁自动机枪，每分钟发射770发子弹。

Beyond Edison, the Englishman Joseph Swan may be the inventor with the greatest claim to inventing a practical light bulb. Swan focused on electric lamps that could emit light via carbonized paper filaments. Swan received a British patent for an incandescent bulb in November 1880. His bulb went into wider practical use than Edison's. He lit the entire Savoy Theater of London using his invention. His own private home was said to be the first to be fully lit by electric lighting. Edison sued Swan in British courts for patent infringement. The courts ruled in favor of Swan, and to settle the dispute, the two men merged their businesses into a British company called Ediswan. They dominated the English market. Some of their bulbs have survived deep into the 21st century.

除了爱迪生，英国人约瑟夫·斯旺可能是最有资格宣称发明了实用灯泡的发明家。斯旺重点研究了可以通过碳化纸丝发光的电灯。斯旺在1880年11月获得了白炽灯泡的英国专利。他的灯泡比爱迪生的灯泡有更广泛的实际用途。他用他的发明点亮了整个伦敦萨沃伊剧院。据说他自己的私人住宅是第一个完全用电灯照明的。爱迪生在英国法院起诉斯旺侵犯专利。法院判决斯旺胜诉，为了解决纠纷，两人将自己的企业合并为一家名为埃迪斯万的英国公司。他们主宰了英国市场。它们的一些鳞茎活到了21世纪。

Joseph Swan (1828-1914) invented an early incandescent light bulb. His house in Gateshead in England was the first in the world to have working light bulbs installed.

约瑟夫·斯旺(1828-1914)发明了早期的白炽灯。他在英国盖茨黑德的房子是世界上第一个安装了工作灯泡的房子。

When it comes to Edison's famous rivals, many minds turn to the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla, who spent several months employed at the Edison Machine Works in New York City. No one would claim Tesla invented the light bulb, but during his brief tenure, Tesla submitted designs for arc lighting, the kind of street lighting pioneered by Humphry Davy decades before. Edison's own low-voltage design couldn't scale up to high-powered arc lighting. For disputed reasons, Edison's company never put Tesla's designs into production, and Tesla bitterly left the company soon after — for reasons that may have had more to do with money than embrace of inventions.

说到爱迪生的著名对手，很多人会想到塞尔维亚裔美国发明家尼古拉·特斯拉(Nikola Tesla)，他曾在纽约市的爱迪生机器工厂工作过几个月。没有人会说特斯拉发明了灯泡，但在他短暂的任期内，特斯拉提交了弧光照明的设计，这是几十年前由汉弗莱·戴维(Humphry Davy)首创的那种街灯。爱迪生自己的低压设计无法适应大功率电弧照明。出于一些有争议的原因，爱迪生的公司从未将特斯拉的设计投入生产，特斯拉也在不久后痛苦地离开了该公司——原因可能更多的是为了钱，而不是为了接受发明。

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) briefly worked at the Edison Machine Works in New York City, where he submitted designs for arc lighting.

尼古拉·特斯拉(1856-1943)曾在纽约市的爱迪生机器工厂工作过一段时间，在那里他提交了电弧照明的设计。

So Who Really Invented the Light Bulb? 到底是谁发明了电灯泡?

The light bulb and the electric lamp were not the inventions of a single person. Rather, they were created in a continual string of inventions, each building off work done by prior scientists. Edison's patent reflected what he had invented: not the first light bulb but rather the first electric light that had true mass application.

灯泡和电灯不是一个人的发明。相反，它们是在一系列连续的发明中创造出来的，每一项发明都建立在先前科学家的工作基础上。爱迪生的专利反映了他的发明:不是第一个灯泡，而是第一个真正大规模应用的电灯。

The continuing evolution endures to this day, as fluorescent lamps and LED lighting technology dominate the marketplace, while incandescent bulbs pioneered by Edison and Swan fall by the wayside. The era of vacuum tubes and glass bulbs may be fading, but the goal remains to create the most practical, widely-adopted light bulbs for the contemporary era.

这种持续的进化一直持续到今天，荧光灯和LED照明技术主导了市场，而爱迪生和斯旺开创的白炽灯则被淘汰了。真空管和玻璃灯泡的时代可能正在消退，但我们的目标仍然是为当代创造最实用、最广泛采用的灯泡。

Patents protect past inventions, but Edison never shelved projects simply because someone else had gotten the idea before him. Schobert recalls: "My all-time favorite Edison story ... occurred when Edison was giving a group of visitors a tour of his Menlo Park laboratory. One of the visitors asked Edison what rules his staff had to follow when they were working on an invention. Supposedly Edison bellowed, 'We don't have rules around here! We're trying to accomplish something!' "

专利保护过去的发明，但爱迪生从未仅仅因为别人在他之前有了想法而搁置项目。舒伯特回忆道:“我最喜欢的爱迪生故事……发生在爱迪生带领一群游客参观他的门洛帕克实验室时。一位参观者问爱迪生，当他的员工从事一项发明工作时，他们必须遵守什么规则。据说爱迪生吼道:“我们这里没有规矩!我们正在努力完成一些事情!’”