On this date, 31 December 1879, Thomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey. On January 27 of the following year, he filed for a U.S. Patent for the electric incandescent lamp. On October 8, 1883 the U.S. patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William Sawyer and was invalid. A British inventor named Joseph Swan had publicly unveiled his carbon filament light bulb in New Castle, England a decade prior to Edison's announcement. Thus Edison's light bulb was, in fact, a mere copy of Swan's light bulb. Heinrich Göbel, a German inventor, is thought by many to have developed the first practical bulb in 1854. His lamp lasted for up to 400 hours.

Edison's story is really one of a competitive business and marketing person making practical improvements to the innovations of others. For example, the earliest known invention of a phonographic recording device was Leon Scott's phonautograph patented on March 25, 1857. While it had the capability to transcribe sound to a visible medium, it lacked the means to play back the sound after it was recorded. The device consisted of a horn that focused sound waves onto a membrane to which a hog's bristle was attached, causing the bristle to move and enabling it to inscribe a visual medium. Thomas Alva Edison announced his invention of the first phonograph, a device for recording and replaying sound, on November 21, 1877 and he demonstrated the device for the first time on November 29, 1877. It was patented it on February 19, 1878; US Pat. No. 200,521.