Joseph Swan#Ediswan

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.Davidson, Michael W., and The Florida State University. "Molecular Expressions. [http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/swan.html Science, optics and you. Pioneers in optics. Joseph Swan (1828–1914)]." Last modification 26 February 2004. Retrieved 16 November 2009

Swan was apprenticed for six years to a Sunderland firm of pharmacists/druggists, Hudson and Osbaldiston. However, it is not known whether 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 for his surroundings, the industry of the area, and reading at Sunderland Library. He attended lectures at the Sunderland Atheneum.{{Cite web |url=http://www.kstc.co.uk/josephswan/home.html|title=Joseph Swan: Biography| first=Jon|last=Plumley|website=www.kstc.co.uk|access-date=10 January 2018| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170506143128/http://www.kstc.co.uk/josephswan/home.html|archive-date=6 May 2017|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}

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 November 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 (the store closed in 1986{{Cite web |last=Peacock-NEC |first=Lucy |date=2014-09-29 |title=Remember When: North East corner shops and department stores |url=https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/gallery/remember-when-north-east-corner-7849726 |access-date=2025-05-26 |website=Chronicle Live |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Annonymous |date=29 June 2025 |title=Mawson, Swan, and Morgan |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG207175 |url-status=live |access-date=29 June 2025 |website=British Museum}}), formerly located on Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne, near Grey's Monument. The premises, now occupied by fashion retailer END., can be identified by a line of Victorian-style electric street lamps in front of the store on Grey Street.

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.{{cite news| last= Newton |first=Douglas | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=zNgPIKR8FK4C&pg=PA290 | title= Light and likeness | work=New Scientist| date= 26 October 1978 | accessdate= 30 December 2010}} The house was later converted into Beaconsfield School, a private fee-paying grant-aided co-educational grammar school.[https://books.google.com/books?id=mHAnAAAAMAAJ&q=Beaconsfield+School+joseph+swan Electrical times, Volume 145] p. 220. Retrieved 30 December 2010 Students there could still find examples of Swan's original electrical fittings.

File:carbonfilament.jpgs, approx. 30 watts, left side: running with 100 volts)]]

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, but the lack of a good vacuum, and of an adequate electric source, resulted in an inefficient light bulb with a short life.{{Cite news|author=|date=28 May 1914|title=Death Of Sir Joseph Swan|work=The Times|issue=40535|page=12|id={{Gale|CS202441404}}|url=https://www.thetimes.com/archive/article/1914-05-28/12/8.html|access-date=4 June 2021|url-access=subscription}} In August 1863 he presented his own design for a vacuum pump to a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.{{Cite book|last=British Association for the Advancement of Science|first=Notices and Abstracts of Miscellaneous Communications to the Sections|url=https://archive.org/details/reportofbritisha64brit|title=Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.|date=1863|publisher=John Murray|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/reportofbritisha64brit/page/26 26]|language=en|chapter=On a Mercurial Air-Pump by J. W. Swan.|oclc=1052544488}} The design used mercury falling through a tube to trap air from the system to be evacuated. Swan's design was similar in construction to the Sprengel pump and predates Herman Sprengel's research by two years. Furthermore, it is notable that Sprengel conducted his research while visiting London,{{Cite journal |last=Sprengel |first=Hermann |date=1865 |title=III. Researches on the vacuum |url={{google books|plainurl=yes|id=UKIwAAAAYAAJ|pg=PA9}} |journal=Journal of the Chemical Society |volume=18 |pages=9–21 }} and was probably aware of the annual reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Nonetheless, Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison are later reported to have used the Sprengel pump to evacuate their carbon filament lamps.{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Silvanus P.|url=https://archive.org/details/developmentofmer00thom|title=The development of the mercurial air-pump|date=1888|publisher=E. & F.N. Spon|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/developmentofmer00thom/page/19 19]}}{{Cite book|last1=Friedel|first1=Robert|last2=Israel|first2=Paul|year=2010|name-list-style=amp|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8U-Naf4DuzMC&pg=PA46|title=Edison's Electric Light: The Art of Invention|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|edition=Revised|isbn=978-0-8018-9482-4|pages=56|access-date=2018-07-03}}

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.{{Cite web|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/bios/swan.htm|title=Lighting A Revolution: Joseph W. Swan|website=americanhistory.si.edu|access-date=10 January 2018}}

File:Sir Joseph William Swan FRS (RSC National Chemical Landmark).jpg

Swan first publicly demonstrated his incandescent carbon lamp at a lecture for the Newcastle upon Tyne Chemical Society on 18 December 1878. However, after burning with a bright light for some minutes in his laboratory, the lamp broke down owing to excessive current. On 17 January 1879 this lecture was successfully repeated with the lamp shown in actual operation; Swan had solved the problem of incandescent electric lighting by means of a vacuum lamp. On 3 February 1879 he publicly demonstrated a working lamp to an audience of over seven hundred people in the lecture theatre of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, Sir William Armstrong of Cragside presiding.{{cite news |title=Reward offered for oldest working light bulb in a British home |url=https://www.rsc.org/news-events/articles/2009/01-january/light-bulb/ |access-date=12 May 2025 |work=Royal Society of Chemistry}} Swan turned his attention to producing a better carbon filament, and the means of attaching its ends. He devised a method of treating cotton to produce "parchmentised thread", and obtained British Patent 4933 on 27 November 1880.Swan K. R. Sir Joseph Swan and the Invention of the incandescent electric lamp. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1946 pp. 21–25 From that time he began installing light bulbs in homes and landmarks in England.

File:Sir Joseph Swan blue plaque.jpg commemorating Swan's invention and Underhill as the first house in the world to have electric lighting installed]]

His house, Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead, was the world's first to have working light bulbs installed.{{Cite news|title=Tale of tragedy behind the triumphs of Joseph Swan|url=http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tale-tragedy-behind-triumphs-joseph-4424356|publisher=The Journal|date=11 December 2016|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-date=20 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220074804/http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tale-tragedy-behind-triumphs-joseph-4424356|url-status=dead}} The Lit & Phil Library in Westgate Road, Newcastle, was the first public room lit by electric light during a lecture by Swan on 20 October 1880.{{Cite news|last=Glover|first=Andrew|title=Alexander Armstrong in appeal to save Lit and Phil|quote=The society's lecture theatre was the first public room to be lit by electric light, during a lecture by Sir Joseph Swan on October 20, 1880.|newspaper=The Journal|date=8 February 2011|url=http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2011/02/08/alexander-armstrong-in-appeal-to-save-lit-and-phil-61634-28133303/|access-date=8 February 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215165559/http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2011/02/08/alexander-armstrong-in-appeal-to-save-lit-and-phil-61634-28133303/|archive-date=15 February 2011}}[http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/image_galleries/lit_and_phil_gallery.shtml?12 History in pictures – The Lit & Phil], BBC. Retrieved 8 August 2011 In 1881 he founded his own company, The Swan Electric Light Company,{{Cite web |url=http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/lightbulb.htm |title=Ideafinder.com, Light Bulb History, accessed 17 July 2012 |access-date=17 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804155102/http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/lightbulb.htm |archive-date=4 August 2012 |url-status=dead }} and started commercial production.Chirnside, R.C. Sir Joseph Wilson Swan FRS Newcastle upon Tyne: Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne 1979

File:Savoy Theatre (Westminster City Council).jpg in London noting it as the first public building to be lit entirely by electricity in 1881]]

The Savoy, a state-of-the-art theatre in the City of Westminster, London, was the first public building in the world lit entirely by electricity.Burgess, Michael. "Richard D'Oyly Carte", The Savoyard, January 1975, pp. 7–11 Swan supplied about 1,200 incandescent lamps, powered by an {{convert|88.3|kW|hp|lk=on|adj=on|abbr=off}} generator on open land near the theatre."The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 3 October 1881{{cite book|last=Gooday|first=Graeme |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AakTAQAAIAAJ&q=swan+Iolanthe|title=Domesticating electricity: technology, uncertainty and gender, 1880–1914 |publisher=Pickering & Chatto|year=2008|page=107|access-date=30 November 2010|isbn=978-1851969753|oclc=222542339}} The builder of the Savoy, Richard D'Oyly Carte, explained why he had introduced Swan's electric light: "The greatest drawbacks to the enjoyment of the theatrical performances are, undoubtedly, the foul air and heat which pervade all theatres. As everyone knows, each gas-burner consumes as much oxygen as many people, and causes great heat beside. The incandescent lamps consume no oxygen, and cause no perceptible heat."[http://www.lyricoperasandiego.org/resource_library/PeopleCarte.htm "Richard D'Oyly Carte"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413125856/http://www.lyricoperasandiego.org/resource_library/PeopleCarte.htm|date=13 April 2009}}, at the Lyric Opera San Diego website, June 2009 The first generator proved too small to power the whole building, and though the entire front-of-house was electrically lit, the stage was lit by gas until 28 December 1881. At that performance, Carte stepped on stage and broke a glowing lightbulb before the audience to demonstrate the safety of Swan's new technology. On 29 December 1881, The Times described the electric lighting as visually superior to gaslight.[https://www.gsarchive.net/carte/savoy/electric.html Description of lightbulb experiment] in The Times, 29 December 1881

The first private residence, other than the inventor's, lit by the new incandescent lamp was that of his friend, Sir William Armstrong at Cragside, near Rothbury, Northumberland. Swan personally supervised the installation there in December 1880. Swan had formed "The Swan Electric Light Company Ltd" with a factory at Benwell, Newcastle, and had established the first commercial manufacture of incandescent lightbulbs by the beginning of 1881.

Swan's carbon rod lamp and carbon filament lamp, while functional, were still relatively impractical owing to low resistance (needing very expensive thick copper wiring) and short running life.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2009/12/1218joseph-swan-electric-bulb/|title=Dec. 18, 1878: Let There Be Light — Electric Light|magazine=Wired |access-date=10 January 2018 |last1=Ganapati |first1=Priya }} While searching for a better filament for his light bulb, Swan inadvertently made another advance. In 1881, he developed and patented a process for squeezing nitrocellulose through holes to form conducting fibres. His newly established company (which by merger eventually became the Edison and Swan United Company) used Swan's cellulose filaments in their bulbs. The textile industry has also used this process.{{Cite web|url=http://www.timmonet.co.uk/html/body_joseph_swan.htm|title=Joseph Wilson Swan|publisher=Timmonetk|access-date=21 July 2010}}

File:Joseph Wilson Swan 2.jpg

The first ship to use Swan's invention was The City of Richmond, owned by the Inman Line. She was fitted with incandescent lamps in June 1881. The Royal Navy also introduced them to its ships soon after; with HMS Inflexible having the new lamps installed in the same year. An early employment in engineering was during the digging of the Severn Tunnel, where the contractor Thomas Walker installed "20-candlepower lamps" in the temporary pilot tunnels.{{Cite book|last1=Walker|first1=Thomas A|title=The Severn Tunnel Its Construction and Difficulties|url=https://archive.org/details/severntunnelits01walkgoog|date=1888|publisher=Richard Bentley and Son|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/severntunnelits01walkgoog/page/n131 73]}}

Swan was one of the early developers of the electric safety lamp for miners, exhibiting his first in Newcastle upon Tyne at the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers on 14 May 1881.Swan. J.W. [https://archive.org/details/transactions30nort#page/n295 Swan's electric light] Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 30, 1881, 149–159 This required a wired supply, so the following year, he presented one with a batterySwan, J.W. [https://archive.org/stream/transactions31nort#page/116 On an electric safety lamp, with portable secondary battery] Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 31 1881-2, 117–9 and other improved versions followed.Swan, J.W. [https://archive.org/stream/transactions36nort#page/n63 On an improved electric safety lamp for miners] Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 36 1886-7, 3–11 By 1886, a lamp with better light output than a flame safety lamp was in production by the Edison-Swan Company.[https://archive.org/stream/transactions36nort#page/54 Discussion on electric lamps] Transactions, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 36 1886-7 55 – 59 However, it suffered from problems of reliability and was not a success. It took development by others over the next 20 years or so before effective electric lamps were in common use.{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=A. V.|last2=Tarkenter|first2=R. P.|title=Electrical technology in mining: the dawn of a new age|location=London|publisher=Peter Peregrinus Ltd|year=1993|isbn=978-0863411991|oclc=28220773}}

File:This poster is from the Swan Collection of Tyne & Wear Museums, held at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. (9672405368).jpg

In what are considered to be independent lines of inquiry, Swan's incandescent electric lamp was developed at the same time that Thomas Edison was working on his incandescent lamp,Maury Klein, The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America, Bloomsbury Publishing USA — 2010, Chapter 9 — The Cowbird, The Plugger, and the Dreamer with Swan's first successful lamp and Edison's lamp both patented in 1880.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-08 |title=Thomas Edison's Patent Application for the Light Bulb (1880) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/thomas-edisons-patent-application-for-the-light-bulb |access-date=2023-06-04 |website=National Archives |language=en}} Edison's goal in developing his lamp was for it to be used as one part of a much larger system: a long-life high-resistance lamp that could be connected in parallel to work economically with the large-scale electric-lighting utility he was creating.David O. Whitten, Bessie Emrick Whitten, Handbook of American Business History: Manufacturing, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990, pages 315-316 Swan's original lamp design, with its low resistance (the lamp could be used only in series) and short life span, was not suited for such an application.

Swan's strong patents in Great Britain led, in 1883, to the two competing companies merging to exploit both Swan's and Edison's inventions, with the establishment of the Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company. Known commonly as "Ediswan", the company sold lamps made with a cellulose filament that Swan had invented in 1881, while the Edison Company continued using bamboo filaments outside of Britain. In 1892, General Electric (GE) began exploiting Swan's patents to produce cellulose filaments, until they were replaced in 1904 by a GE developed "General Electric Metallized" (GEM) baked cellulose filaments.[http://www.edisontechcenter.org/incandescent.html Incandescent Lamps, History of the Incandescent Light (1802 — today)], EdisonTechCenter.org {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314112308/http://www.edisontechcenter.org/incandescent.html|date=14 March 2013}}

In 1886, Ediswan moved production to a former jute mill at Ponders End, North London.Pam, D. (1977),The New Enfield: Stories of Enfield Edmonton and Southgate, a Jubilee History, London Borough of Enfield Libraries, Arts & Entertainment Dept In 1916, Ediswan set up the UK's first radio thermionic valve factory at Ponders End. This area, with nearby Brimsdown subsequently developed as a centre for the manufacture of thermionic valves, cathode-ray tubes, etc., and nearby parts of Enfield became an important centre of the electronics industry for much of the 20th century. Ediswan became part of British Thomson-Houston and Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) in the late 1920s.Lewis J.(2001), London's Lea Valley: more secrets revealed, Phillimore, {{ISBN|1-86077-190-4}}

When working with wet photographic plates, Swan noticed that heat increased the sensitivity of the silver bromide emulsion. By 1871, he had devised a method of using dry plates, and substituting nitrocellulose plastic for glass plates, thus initiating the age of convenience in photography.{{cite news |title=Joseph Swan |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Wilson-Swan |access-date=12 May 2025 |work=Encyclopedia Britannica}} Eight years later, he patented bromide paper, developments of which are still used for black-and-white photographic prints.

In 1864, Swan, via the introduction of carbon tissue, patented the transfer process for making carbon prints a permanent photographic process. By adding the transfer step, Swan was able to easily make photographs with a full tonal range.{{cite book|title=The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g4Wx9yKrDS0C&q=J.W.+Swan+carbon+tissue&pg=PT314|isbn = 9781136106132|accessdate=1 June 2025|last1 = Peres|first1 = Michael R.|date = 29 May 2013| page=59| publisher=Taylor & Francis }} He subsequently sold his patents to the Autotype Company of London in 1868.

File:Sir Josepth Swan Plaque Newcastle upon Tyne.jpg, on the former Electricity Board building]]

In 1904, Swan was knighted, awarded the Royal Society's Hughes Medal, and made an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society.{{Cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Wm. A. |title=The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of All the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of the Knights Bachelors |date=1971 |publisher=Genealogical Publishing Company |location=Baltimore |volume=2|page=419|oclc=247620448}} He had received the highest decoration in France, the Legion of Honour, in recognition for his invention of the electric light bulb after showing it in an exhibition in Paris in 1881.{{cite news |title=Swan (Sir Joseph) Archive |url=https://specialcollections.ncl.ac.uk/swan-08-01 |access-date=12 May 2025 |work=Special Collections & Archives: Newcastle University}} In 1906, he received the Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts.{{Cite web |last=Covington |first=Edward J. |title=Sir Joseph Wilson Swan |url=http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/People%20-%20Swan%20JW.htm |access-date=3 June 2023 |website=LampTech: Museum of Electric Lamp Technology}}

In 1894, Swan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS),{{Cite web|author= |year=1894 |title=Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson: certificate of election to the Royal Society |website=Royal Society Archives |publisher=Royal Society |id=EC/1894/20 |url=https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=EC%2f1894%2f20&pos=14 |access-date=11 April 2021}} and in 1898 he was elected president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers; at the time, Swan was one of its three honorary members, the other two being Lord Kelvin and Henry Wilde. In 1901, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from Durham University.{{Cite newspaper The Times|title=University intelligence|date=30 September 1901|page=4|issue=36573}} He also served as president of the Society of Chemical Industry from 1900-1901,{{cite web | url=https://www.soci.org/about-us/history/sci-presidents | title=SCI Presidents }} and in 1903 he was chosen first president of the Faraday Society.

In 1945, the London Power Company commemorated Swan by naming a new 1,554 GRT coastal collier SS Sir Joseph Swan.Sir Josepth Swan and the Invention of the Incandescent Electric Lamp by Kenneth R. Swan 1948{{Cite web|url=http://www.burntisland.net/ships-list-anderson.htm|title=Ships built by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd: arranged by date of launch|last=Anderson|first=James B|editor-last=Sommerville|editor-first=Iain|year=2008|work=Welcome to Burntisland|publisher=Iain Sommerville|access-date=16 June 2011}}

Swan married firstly Frances "Fanny" White, third daughter of William White, of Liverpool, at Camberwell Chapel, London, on 31 July 1862.{{Cite news|author=|title=Marriages|date=12 August 1862|work=Newcastle Journal|page=3|via=British Newspaper Archive|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000242/18620812/046/0003|access-date=11 April 2020|url-access=subscription}} They had three surviving children: Cameron, Mary Edmonds, and Joseph Henry. Frances died on 9 January 1868{{Cite news|author=|date=11 January 1868|title=Deaths|work=Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury|page=8|via=British Newspaper Archive|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000366/18680111/058/0008|access-date=11 April 2021|url-access=subscription}} and he married secondly Hannah White, the younger sister of Frances, at Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on 3 October 1871.{{Cite news|author=|title=Marriages|date=13 October 1871|work=Newcastle Courant|page=8|via=British Newspaper Archive|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000085/18711013/030/0008|access-date=11 April 2021|url-access=subscription}} They had five children: Hilda, Frances Isobel, Kenneth Rayden, Percival, and Dorothy. Sir Kenneth Rayden Swan was a QC and an acknowledged authority on patent law.{{Cite news|author=|date=20 October 1973|title=Obituary. Sir Kenneth Swan. Authority on Patents Law|work=The Times|issue=58913|page=18|id={{Gale|CS322140495}}|url=https://www.thetimes.com/archive/article/1973-10-15/19/25.html|access-date=4 June 2021|url-access=subscription}} Frances Isobel was the mother of Christopher Morcom, Alan Turing's close friend at Sherborne School.{{Cite web |date=14 March 2025 |title=Christopher Morcom (1911-1930) |url=https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/christopher-morcom-1911-1930/ |website=The Old Shirburnian Society}} After her son's death from complications of bovine tuberculosis in 1930, she and Turing began exchanging letters.{{Cite book |last=Hodges |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Hodges |title=Alan Turing: The Enigma |title-link=Alan Turing: The Enigma |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-691-15564-7 |pages=87}}

Swan died in 1914 at his home in Overhill, Warlingham, Surrey. The funeral took place at All Saints' Church, Warlingham, on 30 May 1914, with interment taking place in the churchyard.{{Cite news|author=|date=1 June 1914 |title=The Late Sir Joseph W. Swan|work=Newcastle Journal|page=2|via=British Newspaper Archive|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000242/19140601/007/0002|access-date=11 April 2021|url-access=subscription}} Mourners included representatives of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Royal Society.{{Cite news|author=|date=1 June 1914|title=Funerals. Sir J. W. Swan|work=The Times|issue=40538|page=11|id={{Gale|CS185402049}}|url=https://www.thetimes.com/archive/article/1914-06-01/11/6.html|access-date=4 June 2021|url-access=subscription}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book|last1=Swan|first1=M. E.|last2=Swan|first2=K. R.|year=1929|title=Sir Joseph Wilson Swan FRS: inventor and scientist|location=London|publisher=Ernest Benn, reprinted with an appendix, Newcastle upon Tyne: Oriel Press, 1968|isbn=978-0853620488|ref=none}}
• {{Cite book|last1=Clouth|first1=D. E.|year=1979|title=Joseph Swan 1828–1914: A pictorial account of a North Eastern scientist's life and work|location=Gateshead|publisher=Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council, Dept of Education|isbn=978-0905977072|ref=none}}

• [http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk Tyne & Wear Archives Service] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070405111556/http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/ |date=5 April 2007 }} Joseph Swan collection
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson|short=x}}
• {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Swan, Joseph Wilson|year=1905|ref=none}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swan, Joseph}}

Category:1828 births

Category:1914 deaths

Category:People from Sunderland

Category:19th-century English people

Category:English inventors

Category:English chemists

Category:English physicists

Category:Knights Bachelor

Category:British recipients of the Legion of Honour

Category:People associated with electricity

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society