Is Agapito Flores worthy of any credit for "inventing" fluorescent lamps even though there were earlier inventors of fluorescent lamps?

by [deleted]

  • In 1857, the French physicist Alexandre E. Becquerel who had investigated the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence, theorized about the building of fluorescent tubes similar to those made today.

  • American, Peter Cooper Hewitt (1861-1921) patented (U.S. patent 889,692) the first mercury vapor lamp in 1901. The low pressure mercury arc lamp of Peter Cooper Hewitt is the very first prototype of today's modern fluorescent lights.

  • Edmund Germer (1901 - 1987) who invented a high pressure vapor lamp, also invented an improved fluorescent lamp. In 1927, Edmund Germer co-patented an experimental fluorescent lamp with Friedrich Meyer and Hans Spanner.

  • Agapito Flores (1897 - ?) received a French patent for a fluorescent bulb and that the General Electric Company bought Flores' patent rights and manufactured and sold his fluorescent bulb (making millions from it). Flores presented the idea of fluorescent light to Manuel Quezon when he became president (of the Philippines/WW2 Era). At that time, General Electric Co. had already presented the fluorescent light to the public.

source: http://inventors.about.com/od/filipinoscientists/a/Agapito_Flores.htm

iwinagin

Does Thomas Edison deserve credit for inventing the light bulb? He certainly wasn't the first one to build a bulb he was just the first to bring a reliable, cheap bulb to market.

There seems to be some evidence that Agapito Flores did in fact present a white fluorescent lamp of some kind to the president of the Philippines in 1935-1936. By this time researchers at General Electric had already solidly designed a white fluorescent bulb. The French Patent idea has no solid evidence. But at about this time General Electric bought pretty much any patent that might have anything to do with fluorescent lighting so it's not impossible that a patent was purchased.

So my thought is that yes Agapito Flores did invent a fluorescent light but it is not the fluorescent light that we use today. For the same reason that Edison is the "inventor" of the light bulb Agapito Flores is not the inventor of the fluorescent light.