---
title: "Which came first, the lightbulb or Monopoly?"
description: "the lightbulb vs Monopoly: the lightbulb came first, by 25 years — 1879 against 1904. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/lightbulb-vs-monopoly/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the lightbulb or Monopoly?

**Which came first, the lightbulb or Monopoly?: the lightbulb**

1879 — 25 years before Monopoly

the lightbulb came first, by 25 years. Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours.

## Side by side

|  | the lightbulb | Monopoly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1879 | 1904 |
| Date | 1879-10-22 | 1904-01-05 |
| Category | invention | media |
| What happened | Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours. | Lizzie Magie patented The Landlord's Game. |

## 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.

## Monopoly

Parker Brothers published Monopoly in 1935 and told the story of Charles Darrow, an unemployed man who invented it at his kitchen table. The truth is that Elizabeth Magie patented The Landlord's Game in 1904 — a nearly identical board designed to demonstrate how land monopolies impoverish tenants, which is precisely the opposite of the message the commercial version carries. Parker Brothers bought her patent for $500.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the lightbulb or Monopoly?

the lightbulb, by 25 years — 1879 against 1904.

### When did the lightbulb start?

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

### When did Monopoly start?

1904. Lizzie Magie patented The Landlord's Game.

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## Sources

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