October 21, 1879 –
Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the incandescent electric lamp on this date (or some other date, as previously mentioned.)
That invention was the fruit of study, hard work (of people other that Edison,) and years of persistent experimentation (of people other than Edison,) rendering it entirely inappropriate for discussion here.
More worthy of our attention is Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize, born on this date in 1833.
Mr Nobel is interesting because his fortune was founded in large part on the commercial success of something he invented in 1866: Dynamite.
Dynamite proved so lucrative for Mr Nobel that he was able to spend most of the rest of his life blowing things up in the interests of world peace. World peace was not achieved in his lifetime, however, so he endowed a foundation with millions of dollars to give prizes to the men and women of future generations who helped bring the world closer to peace by blowing things up.
And so it goes
The Haus of Dcaligari 