The first Brush lights used for street illumination were erected in Cleveland, Ohio, and soon the use of arc lights became general.

Other inventors improved the apparatus, but still there were drawbacks.

For outdoor lighting and for large halls they served the purpose, but they could not be used in small rooms.
Besides, they were in series, that is, the current passed through every lamp in turn, and an accident to one threw the whole series out of action.

The whole problem of indoor lighting was to be solved by one of America's most famous inventors.
The antecedents of Thomas Alva Edison in America may be traced back to the time when Franklin was beginning his career as a printer in Philadelphia.

The first American Edisons appear to have come from Holland about 1730 and settled on the Passaic River in New Jersey.
Edison's grandfather, John Edison, was a Loyalist in the Revolution who found refuge in Nova Scotia and subsequently moved to Upper Canada.