Long before Thomas Edison made a long-lasting and commercial

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Long before Thomas Edison made a long-lasting and commercially viable incandescent lightbulb, the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1802 created the first prototype of the lightbulb, that was too bright and burned out too quickly.

(A) in 1802 created the first prototype of the lightbulb, that was

(B) made the first prototype in 1802, but it was

(C) had created in 1802 the first prototype of the lightbulb, although this would be

(D) had created the 1802 prototype, the first one, which had been

(E) in 1802 had made the first prototype, but this would be


The past perfect tense is one way to indicate that one past event happened before another. When is it necessary? permitted? redundant? For a discussion of these issues, as well as the OA & OE for this particular question, see:
Past Perfect on GMAT Sentence Correction

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