The famous American inventor, Thomas Alva Edison invented the incandescent electric lamp in 1879 and made his first public demonstration of this invention at his Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey, U.S.A. On January 27, 1880, he filed a patent in the United States for his invention, and thus commenced the incandescent era. His invention aimed at providing a cheaper source of electricity to the poor and middle-class Americans. He is quoted as saying that he would provide electricity at such an affordable rate that only the rich would be burning candles. However, Edison faced a major hurdle three years later (on October 8, 1883) when the United States patent office rejected his application. The reason given for this was that Edison's invention of the electric lamp was not an original invention, but an improved version of the lamp originally invented by William Sawyer. After a six-year-long litigation battle, Edison's improved version of a lamp with a high-resistance carbon filament was accepted, but he still faced the threat of another lengthy court battle. To avoid that, he and Joseph Swan (the man who was considering taking legal action against Edison) collaborated to market the product in the United Kingdom, and for this, they formed a joint venture called Ediswan.
