Edison and Swan Electric Light Company

Edison and Swan Electric Light Company Limited
Limited company
Industry Electric industry
Fate Merged to British Lighting Industries Ltd.
Predecessor Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company
Successor Siemens Ediswan
Founded 1883
Founder Joseph Swan
Defunct 1964
Headquarters

Key people
 James Staats Forbes (chairman)
Products Lamps, radio valves, cathode ray tubes
Parent Associated Electrical Industries (1928-1964)

The Edison and Swan Electric Light Company Limited was an English manufacturer of incandescent lamp bulbs and other electrical goods. It was formed in 1883 with the name Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company with the merger of the Swan United Electric Company and the Edison Electric Light Company.[1][2]

Joseph Swan had established the Swan United Electric Light Company in the early 1880s to market the incandescent lamp bulb he had invented. In 1882 the British Edison Company of Thomas Edison sued Swan, claiming infringement of Edison's U.S. patent of 1879; however, the lawyers became aware that Swan would be able demonstrate prior research and publication, and instead negotiated a merger with Swan's company.[3] The lamp bulbs manufactured by the company were almost entirely to Swan's design.[4] From 1887 or earlier Sir Ambrose Fleming was an adviser to the company, and conducted research at Ponders End.[5]

The company had offices at 155 Charing Cross Road, London, and factories in Brimsdown, Ponders End and Sunderland. In 1928, the company was acquired by Associated Electrical Industries. In 1956, a new cathode ray tube plant was opened in Sunderland. The company was renamed Siemens Ediswan following the takeover of Siemens Brothers by AEI in 1957. In 1964, AEI merged its lamp and radio valve manufacturing interests with those of Thorn Electrical Industries to form British Lighting Industries Ltd.[1]

Ediswan Valves

Edison Swan (or later Siemens Edison Swan) produced a wide range of vacuum tubes and cathode ray tubes under the names "Ediswan" or "Mazda"[6] and the 1964 Mazda Valve Data Book claimed: "Professor Sir. Ambrose Fleming... was Technical Consultant to the Edison Swan Company at the time. It was this close co-operation between University and Factory which resulted in the first radio valve in the world."[7]

References

  1. 1 2 The Edison and Swan Electric Light Company Limited. Science Museum Group: Collections Online - People. Accessed September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Railway and other Companies" Times [London, England] 3 Oct. 1883: 11. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 12 Sept. 2013.
  3. ↑ Stathis Arapostathis, Graeme Gooday (2013). Patently Contestable: Electrical Technologies and Inventor Identities on Trial in Britain. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262019033. p. 183. Accessed September 2013.
  4. ↑ C. N. Brown (2011). Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson (1828–1914). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36382. (subscription required)
  5. ↑ MS ADD 122: Fleming Papers. University College London Archives. Accessed September 2013.
  6. ↑ "History of the radio manufacturer Ediswan (Brand) Edison Swan Electric Co.Ltd.". Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  7. ↑ "Mazda Valves". Retrieved 23 June 2014.

External links

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