--- title: Thomas Edison Invents Light Bulb and Myths About Himself description: Oct. 21, 1879: Thomas Edison invents a commercially viable electric light canonical: https://time.com/3517011/thomas-edison/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-21T14:30:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:51:33.132Z article:section: History og:title: Thomas Edison Invents Light Bulb and Myths About Himself og:description: Oct. 21, 1879: Thomas Edison invents a commercially viable electric light og:url: https://time.com/3517011/thomas-edison/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2a9b65e071affd/6987618bcd684807fb0972e4/lightbulb.jpeg?branch=production&width=627&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 627 og:image:height: 353 og:image:alt: First Light Bulb og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Thomas Edison Invents Light Bulb and Myths About Himself twitter:description: Oct. 21, 1879: Thomas Edison invents a commercially viable electric light twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2a9b65e071affd/6987618bcd684807fb0972e4/lightbulb.jpeg?branch=production&width=627&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Edison Invented the Light Bulb — And Lots of Myths About Himself > Sponsored content. 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Electric lights already existed on a streetlight scale when, on this day in 1879, Edison tested the one he’s famous for. Though he didn’t come up with the whole concept, his light bulb was the first that proved practical, and affordable, for home illumination. The trick had been choosing a filament that would be durable but inexpensive, and the team at Edison’s “invention factory” in Menlo Park, New Jersey, [tested more than 6,000 possible materials](http://edisonmuseum.org/content3399.html) before finding one that fit the bill: carbonized bamboo. [Edison bragged](http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1021.html#article) about the filament’s efficacy and economy to a New York _Times_ reporter who toured the factory just after his successful test run: --- > “” --- While Edison considered the invention his “crowning triumph,” it joined the long list of contributions that made him a record-holder for sheer number of U.S. patents — 1,093 — until the 21st century. His [creations included](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-1,00.html) the movie camera and the microphone, the phonograph and the mimeograph, the stock ticker and even the “[stencil-pen](http://www.google.com/patents/US196747),” a precursor to the tattoo gun. And although his accomplishments spoke for themselves, Edison was equally prolific, and ambitious, in inventing myths to boost his reputation as a larger-than-life innovator, as [a 1979 TIME profile](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-1,00.html) notes. As a result, his inventions weren’t just scientific discoveries, but also prevarications. For one thing, he often claimed to be entirely self-taught, having never attended a day of school. “Untrue,” says TIME. “He had at least three years of formal education as a child — a stint that was not unusually short in the rural Ohio and Michigan of his youth. As a budding inventor, he also attended classes in chemistry at New York City’s Cooper Union after realizing that his self-taught knowledge of that science was inadequate.” He also boasted of never needing more than three hours of sleep a night. That’s a half-truth, although the full story may be even more impressive: He managed to piece together a full night’s rest by napping artfully throughout the day. Per TIME: --- > “” --- **_Read TIME’s piece on the 100th birthday of the light bulb, here in the archives_**: [The Quintessential Innovator](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-1,00.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3517011/thomas-edison/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3517011/thomas-edison/"},"headline":"How Edison Invented the Light Bulb — And Lots of Myths About Himself","datePublished":"2014-10-21T14:30:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:51:33.132Z","description":"Oct. 21, 1879: Thomas Edison invents a commercially viable electric light","url":"https://time.com/3517011/thomas-edison/","keywords":["Technology","Science topic","Electricity","Evergreen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2a9b65e071affd/6987618bcd684807fb0972e4/lightbulb.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2a9b65e071affd/6987618bcd684807fb0972e4/lightbulb.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"First Light Bulb","caption":"First Light Bulb","creditText":"Welgos / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3517011/thomas-edison/","name":"How Edison Invented the Light Bulb — And Lots of Myths About Himself"}}]}] ```