So, just who was the bright spark behind our Christmas tree lights?

HOW WORLD’S FIRST FAIRY LIGHTS WERE CREATED BY GEORDIE SON

Reporter IF you’ve ever found yourself cursing as a broken bulb meant the Christmas tree fairy lights failed, you no doubt wondered who the bright spark was that invented them.

Well, as countless strings of them are are switched on across the country, the nation has the North East to thank for what is now a key part of Christmas.

For fairy lights were invented by Joseph Swan, who perfected the incandescent electric lamp.

Born in Sunderland in 1828, he made his home at Underhill at Kells Lane in Low Fell, Gateshead.

It was at the Savoy Theatre in London that the term “fairy lights” was first coined.

Opened in 1881, the Savoy was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity, fitted out with 1,200 incandescent light bulbs created by Swan.

A year later, Swan was commissioned by the theatre’s owner Richard D’Oyly Carte to create miniature lights for the dresses of the lead fairies on the opening night of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe.

The dresses were adorned with lights powered by small battery packs hidden beneath the folds of the cloth.

A year later Edward Johnson, a colleague of Swan’s US rival Thomas Edison, became the first person to put fairy lights on a Christmas tree – a publicity stunt which would become a Christmas tradition.

Newcastle University energy expert Dr Sara Walker will be shedding light on Swan’s role as part of BBC 2’s ‘Inside the Factory’ Christmas Special at 7.30pm tonight. Telling the story with the help of BBC presenter and historian Dr Ruth Goodman, Dr Walker says the invention of the light bulb transformed the theatre experience. “Prior to this, theatres were lit with gas lights but these were dangerous, hot and used up the oxygen as they burnt so the air in the theatre would become unbearable by the end of the performance,” said Dr Walker, a senior lecturer and deputy director of the National Centre for Energy Systems Integration led by Newcastle University. “Swan’s invention which encased a carbon-coated filament in a vacuum connected to an electricity source allowed us to use light in a way that we had never been able to before. “Instead of a flame – which is basically what every light source before this had been – Swan had created something that was safe, gave out very little heat but lots of light and was long lasting.” Swan’s bulbs revolutionised the way people lived and worked, and in the course of his research he Dr Sara Walker