During the 19th century, the development of a commercial light bulb was a major pursuit for inventors. In 1802, Humphry Davy invented the first electric light by producing a battery and connecting carbon to it, causing it to glow and generate light. This invention, known as an arc light, lacked commercial applications.

In 1840, British scientist Warren de la Rue introduced a vacuum tube with a coiled platinum filament through which he passed an electric current. Although the design was functional, the high cost of platinum rendered it impractical. Canadian inventors Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans patented a light with a carbon filament held between electrodes in a glass filled with nitrogen, but they were unable to commercialize their product.

In 1878, Thomas Edison began working on a commercial viable light bulb. In October 1878, he filed his first patent for an “improvement of an electric light bulb.” A year later, he filed an additional patent for creating a carbon filament using “cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways.” Shortly after, Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last 1,200 hours, making a commercial light bulb feasible and ushering in the era of electric light.