Source
Patent for Woodward & Evans' Electric Light, July 24, 1874

Inventors: Henry Woodward (dates unknown), Matthew Evans (dates unknown)

Did you think Thomas Edison invented the light bulb? Many scientists from various countries had been working for many years to develop a long-lasting light bulb. Toronto medical student Henry Woodward was one Canadian who was working on the problem, with help from Matthew Evans, a Toronto innkeeper. Around 1873 or 1874, they invented a glass bulb that housed a carbon filament and nitrogen gas. They patented it in 1875.

Unfortunately, they didn't have enough money to produce and sell the light bulbs, so a year later they sold the patent to… you guessed it: American inventor Thomas Edison!

Source Thomas Edison

Source Electric lamp post, Metcalfe Street looking north, Ottawa, 1916 Source Gas lamp post, Dalhousie Street, Ottawa, April 1882

References

Black, Harry. Canadian Scientists and Inventors. Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishers, 1997.

Hughes, Susan. Canada Invents, Toronto: Owl Books, 2002.