(1) Electric Lamps. Letters Patent for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC LAMPS, AND IN THE MATERIALS EMPLOYED IN THEIR CONSTRUCTION." [British Patent] No. 4933. +(2) Electric Lighting by Incandescence (Royal Institution of Great Britain. Weekl. - [THE FINAL CONQUEST OF DARKNESS]

[London, Eyre and Spottiswoode], 1880, 27th November + 1882 + 1885 (1): 8vo. Unbound. With a recent, discreete paper spine. A few smaller tears to extremities. 4 pp. + 1 plate (showing electric light bulbs].(2): 8vo. Original self-wrappers. Stitched at spine. Near mint.(3): 4 pages 8vo. Scarce original printed patent for the seminal invention that is the incandescent light bulb. Though usually erroneously ascribed to Thomas Edison, it was in fact Joseph Swan who invented the light bulb and ended the dark ages. - Here sold together with the extremely scarce offprint of Swan's 1882 speech on his seminal invention as well as a highly important and interesting autograph letter on the same subject, namely "the new filament or "Artificial Silk" as I have been calling it", in which Swan also confirms his priority in invention and warns against letting the withsent speciman fall into the hands of lamp makers. Swan first publicly demonstrated his incandescent carbon lamp at a lecture for the Newcastle upon Tyne Chemical Society on December 18th 1878. However, after burning with a bright light for some minutes in his laboratory, the lamp broke down due to excessive current. By 1879 Swan had solved the problem of incandescent electric lighting by means of a vacuum lamp and he publicly demonstrated a working lamp to a larger audience. He was not completely satisfied, however, as there were still some fundamental problems attached to it that would make it impossible to consider the invention completed. By 1880, however, he had finally reached perfection. The striking improvements consisted in the carbonised paper filaments being discarded in favour of "parchmentised" cotton thread. Finally, he deemed his milestone invention worthy of filing a patent, and on that memorable day of November 27th 1880, he was granted that most important British Patent No. 4933, "Electric Lamps", marking man's final conquest of darkness. "My invention relates to electric lamps in which is produced by passing an electric current through a conductor of carbon so as to render it incandescent, said carbon conductor being enclosed in an air tight and vacuous or partially vacuous glass vessel.It is well known that the practical efficiency of the kind of electric lamp above described has hitherto been impaired by the want of homogeneity and compactness in the carbon conductors, and by the imperfection of the contact betwixt it and the metallic conductors which convey the electric current to it. I have found that an exceedingly solid, homogenous, and elastic form of carbon, peculiarly adapted for the formation of arches, spirals, or other forms of conductor for electric lamps, can be produced from cotton thread which has been subjected to the action of sulpuric acid of such strength as to cause a similar kind of change to take place in the thread to that which takes place in the bibulous paper in the well known process of making vegetable parchment." (Lines 6-19 in the present patent).From the time of his patent, Swan began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England. His house, Underhill on Kells Lane in Low Fell, Gateshead, was the world's first to have working light bulbs installed. In 1881 he founded his own company, The Swan Electric Light Company and began commercial production of his light bulb.The invention of the light bulb is a turning point in the history of mankind, like the wheel or the invention of the printing press. As McLuhan put it in his groundbreaking main work, "a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence." (p. 8). It does not have content in itself, as e.g. a newspaper, but it is a medium with a social effect strong enough to change the way we think, act, and behave. A light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness. Electric light is "pure information" - a medium without a message. "Whether the light is being used for brain surgery or night baseball is a matter of.…