QI - What Did Edison Invent? REACTION

[@rikmoran3963]

Edison didn’t invent the lightbulb. He worked on previous inventors designs to come up with a commercially viable product. His first patent for a light bulb was pretty much identical to one registered 20 years earlier in England by Joseph Swan. Edison’s patent was declared invalid, and Swan sued Edison. Edison was so worried about losing his company that he made Joseph Swan part of it, creating the Edison & Swan Electric Light Company. Despite all this, people still wrongly think he invented it!

[@chassetterfield9559]

There were several broadly similar designs for incandescent light bulbs. The key variants were in the material of the hot filament [ if you still find an incandescent light bulb, the filament is likely very fine tungsten wire ], and in the contents of the envelope -vacuum, or inert gases. The best of the last generation of auto bulbs used quartz envelopes, allowing for higher temperatures & brighter light, and a low pressure halogen atmosphere.

[@AndrewRoberts11]

Ditto for his Film patents, they were similar to the 1890 French / UK patents of Frenchman Louis Le Prince. The LePrince family sued Edison, but the case failed, Le Prince disappeared and his son was accidentally shot in the back of his head when in the US to present evidence in the patent challenge, in 1898, supposedly a hunting accident.

[@Thisandthat8908]

no "they" don't. most people realise that he did not "invent" it. He made the first commercially successful mass produced, long lasting one that made some sense to use. Unlike Humphry Davies Ark Light, that predates both of your guys by decades. What he did (or had done) was tedious engineering groundwork to find better combinations. Many of these engineering inventions have not one inventor. Usually they are nonetheless (and equally wrongfully) claimed by the British (Steam Engine, TV, Computer... ) none of those complex machines have a clear "first" inventor. And definitely not the one usually associated with it. That said, Edison also did a lot of good (or shady) PR for himself, that is a fact.

[@AlanCanon2222]

Love seeing fellow Americans fall in love with QI, it's brilliant. Kentucky here.

[@felonmarmer]

He invented the practice of patenting other peoples inventions as his own. Not only from other independant inventors but from people he employed to come up with inventions that he then patented for himself. Much like modern pharmaceutical companies. In fact most companies now have clauses in their employment contracts that any invention or patent awarded during employment becomes the property of the company, even if you did the work in your spare time and it is unrelated to the work you do. My company even included a clause that gave them ownership of any patent awarded prior to starting employment. As I didn't have any it wasn't a problem for me!

[@johnnyuk3365]

Yes, Edison”s very aggressive attitude to patenting is very well known. He had an entire department devoted to this. To be fair to him he was good at developing other people’s inventions to be better, I.e the light bulb. He wasn’t the only one at that time. Apparently Alexander Graham Bell “invention of the telephone” was based on other people’s work who hadn’t quite patented it.

[@helenwood8482]

Not even sure he was first ti do that. Bell did it with the telephone too

[@johnnyuk3365]

Just as an aside, Bell’s wife and daughter were both profoundly deaf which I suppose got him interested in sound and hearing. But why didn’t he develop a superior hearing aid, but no he “invented “ the telephone which was totally useless to his family.

[@wyterabitt2149]

The chances of a researcher inventing something completely unrelated to the knowledge and research being funded by the company is almost zero. And in the extremely unlikely event they did invent something unrelated to pharmaceutical industry, the company would not win that patent regardless of any concract legally.

[@nicksykes4575]

The first theatre and home in the world lit by electricity were by Sir Joseph Swan, who had such a strong UK patent in place that Edison had to go into partnership with him to get anywhere in the UK market.

[@alanmosley9454]

They had street lights in London before he invented his light bulb. He made a better light bulb, did not invent the first

[@stevehartley7504]

He was good at getting patents on other people's work!!!

[@derekbennett5317]

You really should check out. What did the British ever do for use.

[@helenwood8482]

The lightbulb was in use in the UK long before Edison invented it. He had a lot of US parents, but he personally did not invent any of the things he patented.

[@MichaelLamming]

He did invent a recording device, but very little else. He had a whole bunch of patents in America, but 90% were other people's inventions. He also didn't invent motion pictures, I'm afraid.

[@Roz-y2d]

He didn’t invent that much, he improved other peoples inventions, sometimes without their permission.

[@zaftra]

Edison invented the motion picture? who wrote that list? his grandson, certainly an American.

[@johankaewberg8162]

Every single thing except ”Hello” and RnD was just slight improvements on other people’s inventions. But research and development is pretty awesome!

[@mikdavies5027]

I think that the only thing that edison invented was "B.S."!

[@MrPerkedel]

This clip is cut in a peculiar way. In the original show Fry states very clearly that the word 'Hello' is the only invention made by Edison.

[@stephenhodgson3506]

Edison didn't invent Motion Pictures that was Louis Le Prince in my home City of Leeds England in 1888. Although it was very short it is still the worlds first Motion Picture kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZ-nY3ien6yqjas Although he was almost deaf Edison used to test the phonograph for quality. He would mount the phonograph in a wooden structure and bite on the wood while the phonograph played and he determined the quality based on the vibrations through the wood. One of his test devices can be seen in Edison's Summer House, fort Meyers, Florida and you can see his teeth marks in the wood.

[@danielgardecki1046]

The world's first camera, the world's first negative, the world's first film, the world's first colour film, the world's first TV, and much much more, are all just 1.4 miles from my house, along with Europe's first IMAX, and the Pictureville Cinema which is currently the only place in the world where you can watch Cinerama films.

[@AlBarzUK]

Cinerama was a great experience back in the 1960s. There nothing like it.

[@Thisandthat8908]

Not looking up the others, but i know, the british claim for "the first TV" is nonsense! Logie Bairds TV barely worked, has almost nothing to do with what became the actual (CRT) TV (but his ideas contributed) .. The very CRT in a TV was invented by a German (Braun) and refined to TV levels by Westinghouse (US). And yet we stuck with this "first british TV" crap as much as with Edison inventing the lightbulb. So i allow myself the usual scepticism around your other claims.

[@welshgit]

Well, seeing as both the Pictureville and the Cinerama dome in Hollywood are closed until January, whilst the SIFF Downtown in Seattle is currently open, are you saying you have a house in Seattle as well as Bradford? 😁

[@danielgardecki1046]

@@welshgit I'm saying there's no proof the Cinerama screen in Seattle is open. The Seattle cinema reopened in December 2023, however there's no mention of the Cinerama screen reopening. Also the Pictureville and Cubby Broccoli in Bradford are open, and the Pictureville is the Cinerama screen. Only the NSMM and IMAX are closed.

[@Pi_r8]

The first instance of an incandescent light bulb, although not well-documented, was in 1835. James Bowman Lindsay publicly demonstrated the first constant electric light in Dundee, Scotland. His device allowed him to read at a distance of one and half feet from the light source. A mere 45 years before Edison 💡

[@rickb.4168]

I Love the Adele classic "Ahoy Ahoy"

[@rickb.4168]

While Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers dominated the headlines for inventing the equipment which made the moving image possible, Louis Le Prince preceded them by a number of years with a working model which captured motion outside his home in Roundhay, Leeds.29 Aug 2013

[@gaztambo139]

Wow, as long ago as 2013 😃

[@Dudlow]

I remember watching this originally and it helped make sense of why the word 'hello' doesn't appear in any of Shakespeare's plays or, indeed, in any literature before the 1820s.

[@stephenbrough8132]

Kathy loves physics has to be the best reference for all the electrical inventors true accomplishments and deceptions, all the myths surrounding people like Tesla, Marconi, Edison, Westinghouse and so on. The truth is always more interesting than the popular myths. I think she's the only one who spends months researching, going back to the inventors own diaries and personal letters. Well worth a visit so long as you don;t mind being disappointed to find we've often been decieved by the media. (Who'da thought!)

[@raycardy4843]

Yes! Her videos (and her book!) are amazing for the detail in them, often correcting long-held myths..!

[@Thisandthat8908]

i wish she would do a re-edit of those. these are very short videos with very long intros... There is no need to split the Benjamin Franklin (underrated as scientist) one into 3 mini videos.

[@Nimzzeee]

Michael mcintyre has a new joke about silent letters. Hilarious

[@MikeSmith-ye9ho]

It was invented here in Britain, but it wasn’t patterned Edison patterned it

[@leohickey4953]

The Czech for hello is ahoj.

[@rickb.4168]

n 1850, English chemist Joseph Swan began trying to make electrical light more economical, and by 1860 he had developed a lightbulb that used carbonized paper filaments in place of those made of platinum, according to the BBC. Swan received a patent in the U.K. in 1878, and in February 1879 he demonstrated a working lamp in a lecture in Newcastle, England, according to the Smithsonian Institution. Like earlier renditions of the lightbulb, Swan's filaments were placed in a vacuum tube to minimize their exposure to oxygen, extending their lifespan. Unfortunately for Swan, vacuum pumps weren't very efficient then, and the prototype didn't work well enough for everyday use. Edison realized that the problem with Swan's design was the filament. A thin filament with high electrical resistance would make a lamp practical because it would require only a little current to make it glow. He demonstrated his lightbulb, with a platinum filament in a glass vacuum bulb, in December 1879 in Menlo Park, New Jersey, according to the Franklin Institute. Swan incorporated the improvement into his lightbulbs and founded an electrical lighting company in England.

[@richardscratcher6075]

Hungarians often end their phone calls with "hello". Their actual informal word for hello is szia (short for szervusz), which they also use to say goodbye.

[@bucklberryreturns]

It's true in many languages, and pretty well known. Ciao being the prime example.

[@formerCEO]

Oh my gosh, they are teachers, and they don't know. 😊

[@GiantHaystack]

Have you ever used anything you've learned from QI with your students?

[@handsolo1209]

Without Edison's one actual invention, all of us CFA loyals would have had to hear "Ahoy hoy CFA Nation!" every time.

[@richardbeaton7324]

Oh please react to a QI compilation with Bill Bailey :) There are a couple on here. He's the bald guy with the long hair hehe ... If you've never seen him before he's a comedy musical genius and was in a great series titled Black Books.

[@robertlonsdale5326]

The greatest invention that has come out of the US is re-writing history.

[@HelloHello33333]

That's crazy! Cos I thought I invented hello

[@simonpearson9557]

i think you are confusing the argument of the time over AC and DC eletrical currents with lightbulbs.

[@ltsecomedy2985]

Hi Nick & Jodi, I know you use some sort of passes in your schools. I was just wondering, if Jodi needs a "teacher pass" to prove she is not just another student !! :)

[@R3ED3R]

Edison blubs today are the ones with the screw fitment rather than the bayonet fitment... at least in the UK

[@johnnyuk3365]

@@R3ED3R I have just moved into a new flat in London and I (frustratingly) have 6 different bulbs (I believe in the trade bulbs are called LAMPS) in a relatively small one bedroom flat. Unfortunately not a single one is a bayonet fitting, all are screw or more likely low energy 4-pin Fluorescent tubes. I dream about the days when my only thought was whether I stick a 60W or 100W in a bayonet fit.

[@R3ED3R]

@johnnyuk3365 I know what you mean mate... ive given up saying lamp now for a start as people here think I mean a table side light fixture..... for your issue they are straight swap fittings so only takes a new fixture to replace it

[@R3ED3R]

@johnnyuk3365 guessing you have purchased in your case to be dealing with this issue? If your renting i am sure you could come to some agreement with the landlord

[@wyterabitt2149]

It's an edison cap. They aren't edison bulbs, those are a specific style of bulb designed to give a certain kind light.

[@R3ED3R]

@wyterabitt2149 is it a screw fitting...?

[@mlee6050]

I prefer saying Hiya but often say Hello when worry about some people not like or know I'm a gay guy

[@watchreadplayretro]

Hullo! Today's BR episode is up for me to view! Cheers guys!

[@Enlightened-WOLF]

if its someone i don't know i answer with what THE F do you want

[@MikeDuddy-q2t]

Shouting Hello! When you see a beautiful woman is way better than going Ahoy Hoy!

[@skasteve6528]

Yeah, you'd get a visit from the police 'Ahoy Hoy, Ahoy Hoy, Ahoy Hoy, what's going on here then?'

[@HalkerVeil]

Ah but you DID look at the comments! Hullo!

[@gtaylor331]

Maths note books....

[@worthatronproduction]

Most of his inventions were invented by his workers

[@JEFF-ft6qm]

Who invented the aeroplane?

[@skasteve6528]

Sir George Cayley. The first flight by aeroplane that carried a human, was in 1848. It was a glider. Cayley's work was incorporated in first powered flight was John Stringfellow's steam powered aircraft also in 1848, this was demonstrated at the . In 1871, Francis Wenham designed the first wind tunnel. In 1857, Felix Du Temple designed the first retractable undercarriage. In the 1890's Otto Lilienthal made many improvements, particularly to wing design (building on the work of Alphonse Penaud). Hiram Maxim built a rest rig to study aerodynamic lift. No further progress could really be made however due to the weight of even the lightest steam engines. The point is, that none of the inventions from this period were created in isolation. Inventors from around the world, experimented, published their work and other people read those publications and did their own experiments.

[@nonnovyabizness3003]

So Edisons only invention was to misspell an English word so does that mean all Americans are inventors ?

[@jrc9555]

Eddison invented the Incondesent light bulb and the Phonograph. x

[@leohickey4953]

Several people had their own models of incandescent bulb before Edison (there was even a street in Newcastle-upon-Tyne lit by Joseph Swan's incandescent lights before Edison patented his design). Edison improved the filament reliability, though, so his design became more widely used than the pre-existing ones.

[@helenwood8482]

He didn't.