"mark" wrote in message
o.uk...

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message
,
EastneyEnder writes
Gordon H wrote:
OOOPS! QI is on, and it's one I haven't seen!

Now *there's* a TV show worth watching.
If I had green thumbs, they'd both be up to you.

I bought an audio CD called The Sound Of General Ignorance, which is
based on the "fact or myth" content of QI.
It comes in handy if I wake up at 4am...

Some of the assertions made on the programme are slightly dubious,
though. Did Edison invent the light bulb, or was he the man who could
afford to take out the patent on a device very similar to that invented
by a Brit? I'll have to listen again to find out his name.
--
Joseph Swan.

Correct, Swan, an Englishman, invented the incandescent lightbulb, patenting
it in Britain in 1878. Edison had been working, trying to improve on one of
Swan's earlier (also patented) designs, and got the US patent for a similar
lamp about a year after Swan, although he used different filament material
(bamboo as opposed to cellulose).

Edison and Swan subsequently collaborated in the exploitation of the design
via the Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company (or Ediswan for short)
formed in 1883.

The guy who really seemed to get a bum deal from Edison was poor old Tesla,
of course.

In message , mark
writes

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message
,
EastneyEnder writes
Gordon H wrote:
OOOPS! QI is on, and it's one I haven't seen!

Now *there's* a TV show worth watching.
If I had green thumbs, they'd both be up to you.

I bought an audio CD called The Sound Of General Ignorance, which is based
on the "fact or myth" content of QI.
It comes in handy if I wake up at 4am...

Some of the assertions made on the programme are slightly dubious, though.
Did Edison invent the light bulb, or was he the man who could afford to
take out the patent on a device very similar to that invented by a Brit?
I'll have to listen again to find out his name.
--
Joseph Swan.

mark

Sounds vaguely familiar. :-)
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

In message
,
EastneyEnder writes
Gordon H wrote:
OOOPS! QI is on, and it's one I haven't seen!

Now *there's* a TV show worth watching.
If I had green thumbs, they'd both be up to you.

I'll second that.
--
June Hughes