4. First case study – the subdivision of the light - HM Treasury

F05 Ch4 Subdivision of the light.doc
05/04/2006 19:34:00
Technological roulette – a multi-disciplinary study of the dynamics of innovation in electrical, electronic
and communications engineering.
4. First case study – the subdivision of the light
filaments, was also capable of being used for the manufacture of textiles. Fine cellulose
threads produced in this way were crocheted by his wife into lace and used to make the
border of small mats and doyleys and a few of these articles were exhibited at the
Inventions Exhibition of 1885, under the description “artificial silk.”
Following his work on extruded cellulose, Swan interested himself in the electro-
deposition of metals. He developed improved methods of depositing copper and
discovered a way of bright plating nickel by adding organic material to the electrolyte. In
1894 Swan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, following publication of the results
of the research on the electrolytic deposition of copper which he had carried out with the
assistance of John Rhodin.
Swan maintained a personal laboratory where he kept abreast of developments in
technology relevant to the lighting business. He was, however, a firm believer in the
philosophy of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” – he refrained from suggesting small
improvements which would upset manufacture. His policy was not to introduce a
variation in manufacture until he had evolved an improvement substantial enough to make
it worth while to make a general change.
Although Swan did not press for the adoption of improvements, he was insistent on
the importance of a well-equipped R&D operation. The important patents which gave the
company a monopoly in incandescent lamp manufacture had expired by 1897, and Swan
saw clearly that it was only by innovation and improvement of the lamp that the company
could maintain its leading position.
“I am very much preoccupied with devices for the improvement of the electric lamp. For
18 years there has been no radical change in it, only such changes as arise from practice in
manufacture. Now there are signs of radical and far-reaching change, and I am naturally
anxious that these changes, if they do come, as I expect they will, may not find us unprepared
for them, nor wholly unconnected with them. I am busy considering a patent specification.”
In retirement, Swan 1929,p166 he resumed his scientific endeavours, investigating
materials for the construction of a gaseous fuel cell. But although these researches
continued to within a few weeks of his death, he failed to achieve the construction of a
practical realisation of his objective.
4.7.4 The third inventor of the carbon filament lamp – Thomas Alva Edison
101