Joseph Swan - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Wilson Swan
Photograph of Swan, c.1900
Born	(1828-10-31)October 31, 1828 Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, England
Died	May 27, 1914(1914-05-27) (aged 85) Warlingham, England
Nationality	British
Known for	incandescent light bulb
Scientific career
Fields	physics chemistry

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (31 October 1828–27 May 1914) was an English physicist and chemist who was well known because he created the incandescent light bulb,^[1] about a year before Thomas Edison. His house was the first in the world to be lit by electric light bulbs.

In 1904, Swan was knighted, awarded the Royal Society's Hughes Medal, and was made an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society. He had already received the highest award in France, the Légion d'honneur, 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.