A lightbulb is clearly a new invention when all you have are oil lamps. You can retrospectively say we've always had a device that creates light from heat, lik

A lightbulb is clearly a new invention when all you have are oil lamps. You can retrospectively say we've always had a device that creates light from heat, like this 'new' lightbulb and metaphysically you'd be correct. But the properties and design of a lightbulb are different to an oil lamp. That's new enough to be called original and Thomas Edison (and whoever else helped him) are the originators of the lightbulb design and they made it real. An original thought? Probably not, an original object, yes. Very much so.