Henry Woodward

On July 24, 1874, five years before Thomas Edison's U.S. patent, two Canadians, Henry Woodward, a medical student from Toronto, Ontario and his friend Mathew Evans, patented the first incandescent lamp with an electric light bulb. They understood that carbon was a conductor and made light inside a bulb by sending electricity through a filament made of carbon.

They did not have enough money to develop their invention for people to use and sold a share of their patent to Thomas Edison who recognized its vast potential.

Modern light bulbs still work the same way as the ones invented by Woodward and Evans.Image is a copy from the actual patent application.