- Heinrich Göbel
Heinrich Göbel, or later: "Henry Goebel" (
April 20 ,1818 -December 4 ,1893 ), born in Germany, was a precision mechanic andinventor , an early pioneer who independently developed designs for anincandescent light bulb . He married Sophie Lübke in 1844 and, at the age of 31 (in 1849), they emigrated toNew York City , living there until his death.Göbel made a claim for the invention of the first practical bulb which he designed in 1854, a quarter of a century before Edison's patent. However people still disagree on who was the real inventor:
"There are inconsistent judgements for and against Edison. Edison is only successful in two processes with appeal. This does not mean that the real truth had come forth. The opposing parties do not continue with these processes because of the high costs and also because the Edison copyright would expire in the following year, 1894." [http://www.technikatlas.de/~ta1/Daten_engl.htm]
Previously, Göbel made an offer to sell his invention to Edison in 1882 for a few thousand dollars, but Edison did not see enough merit in the invention to accept the offer.
Lewis Latimer tried to discredit Göbel by claiming his 1850s bulb had been built much later. [Fouché, Rayvon, "Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson." The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London, 2003, pp. 115-116. ISBN 0-8018-7319-3] But in fact Göbel had openly recreated his 1859 tools & bulbs for the courts:In front of experts, called by the court, Goebel reconstructs the tools he used at that time and also his lamps of 1859. [http://www.technikatlas.de/~ta1/Daten_engl.htm]
Göbel eventually lost in the American patent courts, which backed the wealthy American against the poor foreigner. Earlier, when Göbel brought his legal suit to the U.S. Patent office they called it "interference."
Later Judge Colt, in his opinion, explained he didn't rule on facts but on probabilities:
"It is extremely improbable that Henry Göbel constructed a practical incandescent lamp in 1854. This is manifest from the history of the art for the past fifty years, the electrical laws which since that time have been discovered as applicable to the incandescent lamp, the imperfect means which then existed for obtaining a vacuum, the high degree of skill necessary in the construction of all its parts, and the crude instruments with which Göbel worked."
A few months after a court decision established the Edison's priority, Göbel died of
pneumonia . He was buried in theGreen-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. New York.References
* [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/biography/Edison/chap28.html The Edison view of the Litigation]
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