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The Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company Ltd (or Ediswan) was formed in 1883 from the merger of the English lamp-manufacturing interests of Thomas Alva Edison and Joseph Wilson Swan, once bitter rivals. After beginning work on the development of the incandescent lamp in 1878 Edison applied for and was granted a British patent for a practical incandescent lamp in November 1879. This was Patent No. 4576 dated 10 November 1879, No. 8 in this volume. Swan had begun to experiment with lamps in 1860. Together with Charles Stearn, an expert in vacuum pumps whose patents can also be found in this volume, he developed a practical lamp for which he was granted patents in 1880 (Nos. 10, 12, 21 and 23 in this volume). As soon as their respective companies began to make and sell lamps in England they clashed over their basic patents. This was settled with the merger of the companies in 1883 and the upholding of Edison's patent in the same year. The united company enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the markets through its patent rights until the patent ran out in 1893. As is clear from this volume, the company not only held patents in all areas of lamp manufacture, but also for storage batteries, distribution systems, dynamos and many other types of electrical equipment. Note: the patents were originally held in a fine leather binding. This binding has been removed and is stored with SC MSS 135A/3-5.