In 1877 Charles Francis Brush from Euclid, Ohio invented a working carbon arc lamp soon used to light Cleveland's Public Square. In 1879 Thomas Edison, after finding "a thousand things that didn't work" created an incandescent lamp with a carbon filament in an oxygen—free bulb that lasted 40 hours, later improved to 1500 hours. The race was on.
This Currier and Ives comic drawing pits Edison (left) versus Brush. The cigars take the place of the carbon rod electrodes in the arc lamp.
Charles F. Brush High School (serving both South Euclid and Lyndhurst) was built in 1926 and named in honor of Mr. Brush.