Mathew Evans

On July 24, 1874, five years before Thomas Edison's U.S. patent, two Canadians, Mathew Evans, from Toronto, Ontario and his friend Henry Woodward, patented the first incandescent lamp with an electric light bulb. They understood that carbon was a conductor and made light inside a bulb by sending electricity through a filament made of carbon.

They did not have enough money to develop their invention for people to use and sold a share of their patent to Thomas Edison who recognized its vast potential.

Modern light bulbs still work the same way as the ones invented by Woodward and Evans. Image is a copy from the actual patent application.