Background
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was born on October 31, 1828, in Sunderland, Durham, United Kingdom. His parents were John Swan and Isabella Cameron.
A blue plaque commemorates Swan's invention of the electric light bulb and Underhill as the first house in the world to have electric lighting installed
Avers of Hughes Medal
Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was born on October 31, 1828, in Sunderland, Durham, United Kingdom. His parents were John Swan and Isabella Cameron.
Joseph Swan was apprenticed for six years to a Sunderland firm of Pharmacists/druggists, Hudson and Osbaldiston. However, it is not known if Joseph Swan completed his six-year apprenticeship, as both partners subsequently died.
Joseph Swan augmented his education with a fascination of his surroundings, the industry of the area, and reading at Sunderland Library. He attended lectures at the Sunderland Atheneum.
Joseph Swan graduated from Durham University with a Doctor of Natural Sciences.
Beginning his career as a chemist's apprentice, Joseph Swan later became an assistant and then a partner in a company manufacturing photographic wet plates in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Joseph Swan served as president of the British Institute of Electrical Engineers, vice-president of RPS, president of the Society of Chemical Industry, and president of the Faraday Society. He was vice-president of the Senate of University College, London, from 1899 to 1903, as well as a life governor of the college.
Joseph Swan invented the dry plate in 1871, bromide paper in 1878, a primitive incandescent electric light in 1860, and a practical carbon-filament the light bulb in 1878. He presented the latter to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Chemical Society on December 18, 1878. Using nitrocellulose, Joseph Swan also developed the principles later used to manufacture the first synthetic fabric, rayon (1883). Outside of photography, he invented a miner's safety lamp, an electric meter, and electric accumulators.
Joseph Swan married firstly Frances "Fanny" White, third daughter of William White, of Liverpool, at Camberwell Chapel, London, on 31 July 1862. They had three children: Donald Cameron, Mary Edmonds, and Joseph.
Frances died on 9 January 1868 and he married secondly Hannah White, the younger sister of Frances, at Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on 3 October 1871. They had five children; Hilda, Frances Isobel, Kenneth Rayden, Percival, and Dorothy. Sir Kenneth Rayden Swan was a QC and an acknowledged authority on patent law.