Joseph Swan started his working life as an assistant to a Sunderland pharmacist. Swan later became an assistant at a chemical manufacturing company in Newcastle. He eventually worked his way up to a full partnership in the business.

Between 1871 and 1904, Swan was responsible for many important scientific discoveries. He invented bromide paper, for use in photography. He first experimented with carbon filament lamps twenty years before Thomas Edison, but the technology of the day did not allow him to obtain the vacuum needed inside the glass bulb.

Swan went on to improve vacuum technology and develop the first practical light bulb. His investigations into carbon filament development led him, quite accidentally, to the discovery of an artificial fibre. In 1885, Swan exhibited the first articles of clothing made entirely from artificial fibre. In 1904, Joseph Swan received a knighthood for his contribution to science and technology.

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