By Deb Oestreicher on December 27, 2005. Format: Paperback. I heard the title The Man with the Golden Arm long before I ever read the book or saw the movie. It's a beautiful, evocative title, but it also makes you think of something grotesque: a man with a shiny prosthetic.
Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879, patenting it the following year. Before getting the right design for a long-burning, pleasant light for indoor use, he experimented with more than 1,600 different bulbs.
Edison's  lamp became the first commercially successful incandescent lamp  (circa 1879). Edison received U.S. Patent 223,898 for his  incandescent lamp in 1880.    However, contrary to popular belief, Edison did not invent the  first lightbulb, he improved upon a 50-year-old idea. Canadians  Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans patented a light bulb in 1875, but  could not raise the financing to commercialize their invention.  Edison bought the rights to their patent.