23 American History Questions Most Americans Get Wrong

15. Who invented the light bulb?

Correct: It’s unclear, but it wasn’t either of the two you probably thought
Incorrect: Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin

While one study found that 37% of Americans thought that Benjamin Franklin had invented a lightbulb and many others would have opted for Thomas Edison, neither man was really the first behind that particular innovation.

As reported by Science Focus, “The basic idea of using electricity to create light was first investigated over 200 years ago by the English chemist Humphrey Davy.” Nevertheless, Davy was confronted with the issue of finding an affordable material that burned brightly and was long-lasting, so “U.S. inventor Thomas
Edison is often credited with creating a solution in 1879: a carbon filament light bulb.”

And while that sounds impressive, Ripley’s explains that, “by the time Edison started working on it, the light bulb had been around for a long time, just in a different form.” In fact, “about 20 inventors from across the world had drafted various patents on it.”