John Henry Holmes

[1] In 1880, Holmes attended a public demonstration of Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulb.

This seemed to spark his interest in electric lighting, and he approached Swan on multiple occasions in hopes of becoming his apprentice.

The company was very active in the early proliferation of electric lighting, having installed Newcastle's first domestic electrical lighting into their father's house, and supplied installations throughout Europe and the British colonies,[6] making deals in the United States as well.

The technology radically improved the prior switch technology by ensuring the internal contacts moved apart quickly enough to deter the electric arcing that would create a fire hazard and otherwise invariably shorten the switch's lifespan.

[11] The quick break technology invented by Holmes remains in use in billions of domestic and industrial electrical switches across the globe to this day.