---
title: "Which came first, the lightbulb or television?"
description: "the lightbulb vs television: the lightbulb came first, by 46 years — 1879 against 1925. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/lightbulb-vs-television/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the lightbulb or television?

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

1879 — 46 years before television

the lightbulb came first, by 46 years. Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours.

## Side by side

|  | the lightbulb | television |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1879 | 1925 |
| Date | 1879-10-22 | 1925-10-02 |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | Edison's carbon filament lamp burned for over 13 hours. | Baird transmitted the first moving greyscale image. |

## 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.

## television

John Logie Baird transmitted a recognisable moving image of a ventriloquist's dummy in October 1925 using a mechanical spinning-disc system. Philo Farnsworth demonstrated fully electronic television in 1927, and it was that approach, not Baird's, that every subsequent television used. Regular public broadcasting began in 1936, which means television is younger than the talking film and older than the ballpoint pen.

## Common questions

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

the lightbulb, by 46 years — 1879 against 1925.

### When did the lightbulb start?

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

### When did television start?

1925. Baird transmitted the first moving greyscale image.

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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/)