<P> Joseph Wilson Swan was born in 1828 at Pallion Hall in Pallion, in the Parish of Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, County Durham . His parents were John Swan and Isabella Cameron . Swan was apprenticed for six years to a Sunderland firm of druggists, Hudson and Osbaldiston . However, it is not known if Swan completed his six - year apprenticeship, as both partners subsequently died . He was said to have had an enquiring mind, even as a child . He augmented his education with a fascination of his surroundings, the industry of the area, and reading at Sunderland Library . He attended lectures at the Sunderland Atheneum . Swan subsequently joined Mawson's, a firm of manufacturing chemists in Newcastle upon Tyne, started in the year of Swan's birth by John Mawson (9 September 1819--17 December 1867), the husband of his sister, Elizabeth Swan (22 Nov 1822--2 August 1905). In 1846, Swan was offered a partnership at Mawson's . This company subsequently existed as Mawson, Swan and Morgan until 1973, formerly located on Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne, near Grey's Monument . The premises, now occupied by burger chain restaurant Byron, can be identified by a line of Victorian - style electric street lamps in front of the store on Grey Street . </P> <P> Swan lived at Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead, a large house on Kells Lane North, where he conducted most of his experiments in the large conservatory . The house was later converted into a private fee paying, grant aided co-educational grammar school named Beaconsfield School . Here, students could still find examples of Swan's original electrical fittings . </P> <P> In 1850, Swan began working on a light bulb using carbonised paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb . By 1860, he was able to demonstrate a working device, and obtained a British patent covering a partial vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp . However, the lack of a good vacuum and an adequate electric source resulted in an inefficient light bulb with a short lifetime . </P> <P> In 1875, Swan returned to consider the problem of the light bulb with the aid of a better vacuum and a carbonised thread as a filament . The most significant feature of Swan's improved lamp was that there was little residual oxygen in the vacuum tube to ignite the filament, thus allowing the filament to glow almost white - hot without catching fire . However, his filament had low resistance, thus needing heavy copper wires to supply it . </P>

Who was the first person to invented the light bulb