Swan, Joseph

Sir Joseph Swan, as a result of his quest for carbon fiber for lamp filaments (2), learned how to denitrate nitrocellulose using ammonium sulfide. In 1885 he exhibited the first textiles made from this new artificial sHk, but with carbon fiber being his main theme he failed to foUow up on the textile possibihties. Meanwhile Count Hilaire de Chardoimet (3) was researching the nitrocellulose route and had perfected his first fibers and textiles in time for the Paris Exhibition in 1889. There he got the necessary financial backing for the first Chardoimet silk factory in Besancon in 1890. His process involved treating mulberry leaves with nitric and sulfuric acids to form cellulose nitrate which could be dissolved in ether and alcohol. This collodion solution could be extmded through holes in a spinneret into warm air where solvent evaporation led to the formation of soHd cellulose nitrate filaments. 

In another laboratory at Kew, C. H. Steam and C. E. Topham, who had worked for Sir Joseph Swan on lamp filaments, developed the continuous filament spinning process (8) and the machinery needed to wash and coUect (9,10) the yams. A fibermaking method was outlined in 1898, and the Viscose Spinning Syndicate was formed to develop the concept into a commercial proposition. 

As a matter of historical interest, it should be mentioned that Edison was not the inventor of the filament lamp, although this has been frequently urged. Actually, in i860, Sir Joseph Swan obtained a glow in a carbon filament in vacuo and by 1878 he had perfected his filament lamps and placed them on show in this country. At this time Edison s lamp was only in the laboratory stage. This is not to minimise in the slightest Edison s work. But fact is fact. 

In 1879, Thomas Edison in the United States and Joseph Swan in England invented the incandescent lamp, thus making it possible to convert electric energy into light. The invention of the light bulb promoted the use of electricity in people s everyday life. Electricity entered human lives. Lead—acid battery demand increased. However, large-scale production of lead—acid batteries was constrained by the technology of their manufacture. 

At about the same time as Edison was undertaking his work in the USA, Sir Joseph Swan in England had invented an electric lamp and in 1883, produced a precursor material for his carbon fiber lamp filaments by extruding a solution of nitrocellulose dissolved in acetic acid through a small hole into a bath of ethanol and collecting the drawn coagulated fiber, which he later denitrated with a solution of ammonium sulfide, to regenerate the initial cellulose. 

In 1664, Robert Hooke predicted that fibers equal to those produced by silkworms would be made by mechanical means. Joseph Wilson Swan produced filaments from Collodion in 1883 and attempted to use these filaments to produce carbon filaments for incandescent lamps. His earlier investigations of carbon filaments for illumination in 1860 preceded similar developments by Thomas Edison in the 1880 s. Swan was knighted for his invention in 1904. 

Electric incandescent lamp (Joseph Wilson Swan) Swrem produces and patents an incandescent electric bulb in 1880, two years after Edison s fight bulb. Swan will produce a more practical bulb. 

First practical lightbulb (Thomas Alva Edison) Twenty-two people have invented lightbulbs before Edison and Joseph Swan, but they are impractical. Edison s is the first to be commercially viable. Eventually, Swan s company merges with Edison s. 

Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson (1828-1914) English chemist and physicist who in 1860 invented the electric lamp 20 years before Thomas Edison. In 1864 he patented the carbon process for photographic printing in 1871 he invented the dry-plate technique and in 1879 he produced bromide paper. He was the first to produce a practicable artificial silk. 

British inventor Sir Joseph Swan makes artificial silk. 

New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Dept, of Taxation Revenue, Joseph M. Montoya Bldg., 1100 St. Francis Drive, PO Box 1028, Santa Fe, NM 87504 Dept, of Motor Vehicles, Swan Street Bldg., Rm. 510, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12228 Dept, of Transportation, Motor Vehicles Bldg., Rm. 220, 1100 New Bern Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27697 Motor Vehicle Dept., Capitol Grounds, Bismarck, ND 58505 Dept, of Highway Safety, 4300 Kimberly Pkwy., PO Box 16520, Columbus, OH 43266-0020... 

Clouth, D. Joseph Swan, Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council, Department of Education Gateshead, UK, 1979, ISBN 0905977 07 6. 

Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research and School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK... 

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