Re:Who invented the lightbulb?
by TulliusCicero on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @08:53AM
(#24480640)
No, the article makes it clear that he "invented" the first commercially viable light bulb, not the first light bulb, period.
That's what an inventor does. He puts together something functional and usable. If someone tried before with limited success hes not considered the inventor. The plane wasn't invented by the people who died jumping off of things.
Re:Who invented the lightbulb?
by TulliusCicero on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @10:48AM
(#24481795)
No, you're conflating two different things.
The Wright brothers are credited for inventing the airplane based on their first powered flight, even though this plane was in no way commercially viable or even useful. It was only a proof of concept.
Applying the same principle to light bulbs, you'd have to credit someone earlier than Edison. They had working, functional light bulbs, they were just niche.
On that basis, Apple invented the smartphone, and Zoom probably invented video conferencing.
Being the one to make a version of an existing thing that's good enough to actually use regularly, and developing a supporting infrastructure, is important, but isn't really invention.
Obviously not, smartphones existed before Apple made one and video conferencing existed before zoom.
And lightbulbs existed before Edison; that was my point. It's just that for various reasons they weren't that useful for normal people and were mostly only used in niche applications.
Edison (and others; it was pretty regional) convinced consumers they wanted lightbulbs, much as Apple convinced consumers they wanted smartphones and Zoom convinced consumers they wanted VC.
Exactly! General Electric was very much the Apple of the 19th century. Edison's genius was recognizing that he had to create demand for his product. It was not the case of "build it and they will come" - not even with the light bulb! Not only that, but Edison made the light bulb economically viable for everyday use. That's not a small feat! In a similar vein we all know Ford didn't invent the automobile, he was able to mass produce the automobile and make it affordable for everyone. We really need to distinguish between invention and mass production and scaling. Every country likes to claim the former, it was the United States that was really good at the latter - especially from the late 19th to mid 20th centuries.
You could not go an buy a light bulb to put it somewhere where you wanted light. That doesn't mean it didn't exist. It was just not available and the ones that existed probably didn't serve well as a light source. Smartphones however where in stores you could buy them long before Apple made one and they had all the functionality of apples first smartphone.
So he did invent it. Being the first that puts stuff together to get a working result is exactly what everyone means if they say someone invented something. That it builds on existing inventions is the norm.