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Joseph Swan
Sign in to saveAlso known as Joseph Wilson Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan
British physicist and inventor (1828-1914)
OverviewAI-generated
Joseph Wilson Swan was a British chemist, physicist, inventor, and engineer. He worked in the fields of physics and chemistry and spoke English. Born in Sunderland in 1828, he died in Surrey in 1914. His citizenship was in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Swan was a member of the Royal Institution and the Royal Society. He received the Fellow of the Royal Society, Legion of Honour, Hughes Medal, and Albert Medal. His works are held in the collection of the Tate and are recognized in the Royal Society collection. He is described by the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition and the New International Encyclopedia.
Synthesized by Vinony from 17 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
In the Vinony graph
Joseph Swan appears in Vinony's Fellows of the Royal Society collection — one of 9,360 entries.
Vinony's link graph records 133 inbound references to Joseph Swan, and connects out to incandescent light bulb, Sunderland and London.
It is catalogued under topics including 1828 births, 1914 deaths and 19th-century English people.
Vinony links it to 36 Wikipedia language editions.
Key facts
- Born
- Joseph Wilson Swan , ( 1828-10-31 ) 31 October 1828, Bishopwearmouth , Sunderland , County Durham , England
- Died
- 27 May 1914 (1914-05-27) (aged 85), Warlingham , Surrey , England
- Known for
- Incandescent light bulb , Photographic process
- Awards
- Legion of Honour (1881) , Hughes Medal (1904) , Albert Medal (1906)
- Fields
- Physics , Chemistry
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Joseph
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Place of birth
- Sunderland
- Place of death
- Surrey
- Occupation
- inventor
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Award
- Knight Bachelor
- Field of work
- chemistry
- Image
- WP Joseph Wilson Swan.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- member of
- Royal Society
- date of birth
- 1828-10-31
- date of death
- 1914-05-27
- Commons category
- Joseph Wilson Swan
- has works in the collection
- Tate
- name in native language
- Joseph Wilson Swan
- described by source
- New International Encyclopedia
via Wikidata · CC0
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (31 October 1828 – 27 May 1914) was an English physicist, chemist, and inventor. He is known as an independent early developer of a successful incandescent light bulb, and is responsible for developing the first use of incandescent lights used to illuminate homes and public buildings, including the Savoy Theatre, London, in 1881.
In 1904, Swan was knighted by King Edward VII, awarded the Royal Society's Hughes Medal, and was made a member of the Pharmaceutical Society. He had received the highest decoration in France, the Legion of Honour, when he visited the 1881 International Exposition of Electricity, Paris. The exhibition included displays of his inventions, and the city was lit with his electric lighting.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Joseph Swan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.