Where and when does the "idea" light bulb appear for the first time?

Question

In many movies and animated cartoons, the light bulb represents an idea that occurs inside a character's mind. But where does this metaphor come from and what is the first movie/cartoon/show that used it?

Answer 1

Where does this metaphor come from?

The term "bright" to mean "clever" seems to have originated/evolved in the 18th century..

By the mid 1700s, the term was being said to describe children who were clever or displayed an intelligence remarkable for their age. A hundred years on, the word meant a combination of all these, a meaning akin to our modern understanding of the word.

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When the lightbulb was invented...

In the late 19th century, before the development of practical techniques to reproduce photographs on the printed page, illustrations and cartoons were a mainstay of newspapers worldwide. Editors would commission illustrations to depict events described in the articles, or to easily express a point of view. Early reports of Edison’s success with the electric light bulb were often illustrated with drawings a dark room illuminated by a single lamp.

As the bulb’s success became more and more apparent, Edison himself quickly became a celebrity. Many drawings and photographs from the time, depict Edison leaning against a workbench, holding an electric light bulb. These iconic photographs of Edison, the so called “Wizard of Menlo Park,” equated the inventor’s prolific output with the light bulb in the public’s mind. The bulb came to stand for all of Edison’s inventive prowess.

As a symbolic representation of Edison’s slew of new ideas, it wasn’t long before the the symbol came to be associated with the concept of new ideas generically.

Edison’s improvement of the electric light coincided with the world’s new understanding of the of the word to describe someone, or something, as intelligent and inventive. That Edison’s electric light bulbs were also bright like the sun, also helped to connect and cement these two concepts as analogous concepts in the minds of the public.

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What is the first movie/cartoon/show that used it for the first time?

Then came along Felix

In the early twentieth century, Felix the Cat was the world’s favorite animated animal. Created more than a decade prior to Mickey Mouse, Felix was the most popular cartoon character of the silent-film era. The anthropomorphic black cat, with his white eyes and a giant grin, was unable to speak because of the limitations of the medium, but Felix’s emotions and thoughts were projected both through his exaggerated movements, and through various kinds of physical manifestations. When Felix was thinking, symbols and letters would sometimes appear over his head, and he would often use them as props: question marks became ladders, and musical notes became vehicles. It was in these symbolic images that we first see the light bulb used to represent a new idea.

Answer 2

Felix the Cat was the first to use the light bulb as a metaphor for a bright idea.

In the early twentieth century, Felix the Cat was the world’s favorite animated animal. (...) The anthropomorphic black cat, with his white eyes and a giant grin, was unable to speak because of the limitations of the medium, but Felix’s emotions and thoughts were projected both through his exaggerated movements, and through various kinds of physical manifestations. When Felix was thinking, symbols and letters would sometimes appear over his head (...) It was in these symbolic images that we first see the light bulb used to represent a new idea.

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