Thomas Alva Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb

Thomas Alva Edison who started his career as inventor with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices did not invent the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light. Infact he is 24th in the list.Many earlier inventors had previously devised incandescent lamps, including Alessandro Volta‘s demonstration of a glowing wire in 1800 and inventions by Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans. Others who developed early and commercially impractical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy, James Bowman Lindsay, Moses G. Farmer, William E. Sawyer, Joseph Swan and Heinrich Göbel. Some of these early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely short life, high expense to produce, and high electric current drawn, making them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially.

Thales was the earliest know researcher into electricity.He observed that rods of amber, could be rubbed with cat’s fur to attract light objects like feathers.This inspires him to research in to electricity.