These bulbs lasted longer ... 1962: First light-emitting diode (LED) is invented While working for General Electric, Nick Holonyak Jr., invented the first visible-spectrum LED in the form of ...

Swan continued to develop his invention and in 1880 his friend William Armstrong's house at Cragside, near Rothbury in Northumberland, was the first private home to be lit by electric light bulbs.

In 1877, after Edison invented the phonograph, Johnson took the machine on tour, charging crowds to drum up excitement. When Edison patented the light bulb in 1880, its exact value was hard to ...