Zaryanko. The White Hall in the Winter Palace. 1840s

Sergey Zaryanko (1818–1870) was a Russian inventor, engineer, and scientist. He is best known for his contributions to the development of early electric lighting systems. Zaryanko constructed one of the earliest electric lamps in 1860, which he called the "electric candle." This device used a carbon filament enclosed in a vacuum tube and illuminated when an electric current passed through it. Zaryanko's work on electric lighting laid the groundwork for further advancements in the field, leading eventually to the development of practical incandescent light bulbs. However, his contributions were somewhat overshadowed by those of other inventors like Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan, who achieved greater commercial success with their own versions of the incandescent light bulb.