Innovation: Swan's way: A study in style: With the birth of the electric light bulb, two modern styles of inventing emerged: Thomas Edison's and Joseph Swan's

Joseph Swan did not invent the light bulb. But then neither did his contemporary, Thomas Edison. The light bulb that Edison demonstrated in Menlo Park, N.J., in 1880 was the climax of an inventive process begun in the early 19th century and involving a multitude of scientists, inventors, and businessmen that included Swan, an outstanding British inventor.