Science and technology in the United States finish. For example, the British engineer Joseph Swan built an incandescent electric lamp in 1860, almost 20 years before Edison. But Edison's light bulbs lasted much longer than Swan's, and they could be turned on and off individually, while Swan's bulbs could be used only in a system where several lights were turned on or off at the same time. Edison followed up his improvement of the light bulb with the development of electrical generating systems. Within 30 years, his inventions had introduced electric lighting into millions of homes. Another landmark application of scientific ideas to practical uses was the
Heinrich Göbel of the lamps and the method of production. Witnesses of the "Goebel-Defense" said, that reproduced lamps burnt 45, 87 and 166 hours. Edison's lamps burnt at time of applying for a patent approximately 40 hours. So-called "Goebel Original Lamps" were broken in 1893. Experts of the Edison side said that they never burnt. Lewis Latimer, an employee of the "Edison Electric Light Co." and responsible to support their counsels, discredited Goebel by demonstrating that his supposed 1870s bulb (Goebel Lamp No. 4) had been built much later. Professor van der Weyde, an 80 years old physicist, said in his affidavit,