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Contrary to popular belief, the original inventor of the electric light bulb was Englishman Sir Joseph Swan. In fact, Sir Joseph built and installed the first electric bulb in his home in Gateshead, UK in 1878! Sadly, the credit generally goes to American-born entrepreneur extraordinaire Thomas Edison, and the genius of Sir Joseph is overlooked. In truth, they worked in parallel and had much in common. They both strove to change the world as they knew it by creating the humble light bulb to propel the 19th Century out of the dark ages. And they succeeded - they solved the problem of darkness in homes everywhere.

If they were alive today, witnessing the global energy crisis, they would question why people still want to turn on the energy-hungry bulbs that they pioneered over 130 years ago. Especially with the advances of modern technology - why can’t we do better? So we asked ourselves, ‘What would Sir Joseph do?’ He would do it again but make it better. By channelling LED lighting expertise and combining it with industrial design techniques from a bygone era, we have created efficient filament lamps in LED that Sir Joseph would be proud of. To honour Joseph’s wondrous invention and as a celebration of our British heritage, all of our LED bulbs are named after the most popular English names from Sir Joseph’s era.