Henry Woodward (inventor)

frame|right|Canadian Patent application

Henry Woodward (born 1832) was a Canadian inventor and a major pioneer in the development of the incandescent lamp.

On July 24, 1874, Woodward and his partner, Mathew Evans, a hotel keeper, filed a Canadian patent application on an electric light bulb. It was granted on August 3, 1874, as Canadian patent number 3,738. Woodward was a medical student at the time. Their light bulb comprised a glass tube with a large piece of carbon connected to two wires. They filled the tube with inert nitrogen to get a longer burn life in the filament.