---
title: "Which came first, the Ford Motor Company or the lightbulb?"
description: "the Ford Motor Company vs the lightbulb: the lightbulb came first, by 24 years — 1879 against 1903. What happened in each case."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/ford-vs-lightbulb/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the Ford Motor Company or the lightbulb?

**Which came first, the Ford Motor Company or the lightbulb?: the lightbulb**

1879 — 24 years before the Ford Motor Company

the lightbulb came first, by 24 years. Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours.

## Side by side

|  | the Ford Motor Company | the lightbulb |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1903 | 1879 |
| Date | 1903-06-16 | 1879-10-22 |
| Category | company | invention |
| What happened | Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit. | Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours. |

## the Ford Motor Company

Ford was incorporated in June 1903, fourteen years after Nintendo and six months before the Wright brothers flew. The Model T followed in 1908 and the moving assembly line in 1913, which cut the time to build a car from twelve hours to about ninety minutes. Ford was Henry Ford's third attempt at a car company; the first two failed.

## the lightbulb

Edison did not invent the electric light. Humphry Davy demonstrated an arc lamp in 1802, and at least twenty inventors produced incandescent bulbs before him; Joseph Swan demonstrated one in Newcastle in 1878 and was granted a British patent, which is why Edison eventually had to merge with him as Ediswan. What Edison produced in October 1879 was a bulb that lasted long enough and cost little enough to sell, together with the generating and wiring system to make it useful.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the Ford Motor Company or the lightbulb?

the lightbulb, by 24 years — 1879 against 1903.

### When did the Ford Motor Company start?

1903. Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit.

### When did the lightbulb start?

1879. Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)