Joseph Wilson Swan was born in Sunderland on October 31st 1828.
He perfected the carbon process of photographic printing and developed the rapid photographic
plate.
He also patented the first Bromide paper in 1879.
Swan is famous for his development of the incandescent filament electric lamp.
He first demonstrated his lamp at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne
on February 3rd 1879.
He then established the world's first electric light bulb factory in the west of Newcastle.
Mosley Street in Newcastle City Centre was the first street in the world to be lit by
electric light. By 1881 Swan's light bulbs were being used in London where 1,200 of them
were used to illuminate the Savoy Theatre.
