Did Agapito Flores really invented the fluorescent lamp?

It is really hard to believe that something that the school taught you turns out to be just an urban legend.

Well it is time to clear the facts: Agapito Flores did not invent the fluorescent lamp! The one who invented it is a French physicist. His name is Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, who has made some notable contributions to the study of luminescence.

So Where did we get the whole idea that Agapito Flores is the one who invented the fluorescent lamp and how did this whole story end up in some Pinoy science and history books?




Believe it or not, it is just because “Flores” sounds like “fluorescent.” Yvette Tan, author of “Waking the Dead and Other Horror Stories,” also added that the urban legend might have started during the Martial Law era. A time when people had very limited access to sources of information.




This urban legend still  lives on because it is still available in a number of philippine school books.

“I think nasa textbooks pa rin siya ngayon,” said Tan. “We don’t change our textbooks very much.”