---
title: "Which came first, the lightbulb or photography?"
description: "the lightbulb vs photography: photography came first, by 53 years — 1826 against 1879. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/lightbulb-vs-photograph/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the lightbulb or photography?

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

1826 — 53 years before the lightbulb

photography came first, by 53 years. Niépce made the oldest surviving photograph from nature.

## Side by side

|  | the lightbulb | photography |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1879 | 1826 |
| Date | 1879-10-22 | — |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours. | Niépce made the oldest surviving photograph from nature. |

## 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.

## photography

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras, made around 1826 or 1827 on a pewter plate coated in bitumen, required an exposure of at least eight hours. Daguerre's process of 1839 cut that to minutes and made photography practical. Photography therefore predates the telephone by half a century and the fax machine by seventeen years.

## Common questions

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

photography, by 53 years — 1826 against 1879.

### When did the lightbulb start?

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

### When did photography start?

1826. Niépce made the oldest surviving photograph from nature.

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## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)