Many people think that the incandescent light bulb was invented by Edison or Swann, but its development actually took place for more than two centuries. When Edison and Swann got involved, the technology had gone deep into the details. However, these details mean that the curiosity of the laboratory lasts for a few minutes before it burns, and there is a difference between something that can be sold to consumers and lasts for months. The following is the story of how the incandescent light bulb was invented.
Our story begins with Ebenezer Kinnersley in 1761. In a letter to Benjamin Franklin, he described his experiments to test whether heat is generated by electricity. His power source is a capacitor with static electricity, made from a box of bottles or Leiden jars. These batteries have not yet been invented. In order to get enough current to detect changes in temperature, he needs to release all the stored charges at once through the spark gap. In one experiment (Experiment 11 in the letter), the current was enough to make the brass wire red.
Today we say that the wire becomes an incandescent lamp, which emits electromagnetic radiation in the form of visible light due to heat. He also arranged experiments to hang the wire from a heavy object at the bottom, and found that when it turned red, it would stretch an inch, which was the first sign that this kind of heating would damage the wire. He experimented with wires of different diameters of the same material and found that the larger wires had no obvious heating effect and concluded that this was due to the lower resistance of the larger wires.
The next step was the invention of the battery by Alessandro Volta in 1799. This makes constant current testing possible. Many experimenters quickly expanded and improved the battery, so that by 1802, Humphry Davy could use a very large battery composed of 2000 batteries in the basement of the Royal Academy. He generates light by passing an electric current through a thin strip of platinum, which has a sufficiently high electrical resistance and a high melting point. But it still didn't last long, and it was not very bright.
In the next 75 years, many people either tried to use incandescent lamps or copied the work of others. James Bowman Lindsay of Scotland wrote that he experimented in a sealed glass jar in 1835. No air was needed, although it is not clear whether this meant that the jar was sealed, or that he had the jar to some extent Take time out.
In 1838, the Belgian Marcellin Jobard conducted a vacuum test and used carbon wire. In 1840, Warren de la Rue used platinum coils in vacuum tubes, but the cost of platinum made it commercially unviable. In 1841, the British Frederick de Moleyens obtained the first patent for the incandescent lamp because he used platinum wire in the vacuum bulb, but he also experimented with carbon.
American John W. Starr obtained a British patent of 10,919 in the name of his business partner King in 1845 for the manufacture of two types of light bulbs, one is a platinum light bulb, but not a vacuum light bulb. The other uses carbon filaments in a Torricellian vacuum to generate a pressure of 10^-3 Torr (1.3×10-6 atmosphere). Stahl died shortly thereafter, so he did not pursue it commercially.
In 1872, Russian Alexander Lodikin (or Lodikin) applied for and obtained a Russian patent for his incandescent lamp. The lamp uses two carbon filaments, only one at a time. When the first filament burns out, the external commutator can be rotated to use the other one. He first filled it with nitrogen and then switched to vacuum. In 1873 and 1874, he experimented with the lighting of ships and city streets, and founded the electric lighting company AN Lodygin and Co. But he participated in socialist thinking and eventually had to leave Russia.
Before the 1870s (including the 1870s), there were many other inventors, but no one produced a bulb with a filament that lasted long enough to be commercially viable. Many of them introduced technologies such as Lodygin and consumed more The filament plays a role.
It is difficult to say whether there are any moments that will eventually lead to commercially viable bulbs, although if there are large contributors, they may be the Sprengel mercury vacuum pump invented in 1865, which allows for higher vacuum and longer lasting power.
British chemist and physicist Joseph Swan conducted experiments in the 1850s and 1860s, but gave up due to two reasons: insufficient vacuum and power shortage. But with the invention of the Sprengel vacuum pump, Swan was started again in the 1870s, and by 1878 it was able to develop a light bulb that did not turn black inside. It received a British patent in 1880. The bulb used thick carbon filament from an arc lamp and lasted for 40 hours. However, low resistance means that it requires high current and thick wires to supply power, making it commercially unviable.
Then he experimented with "parchmentized" cotton thread treated with sulfuric acid. It has a metallic appearance, is durable, and has a diameter of 0.01 inch, which can form a 1/10 inch spiral. At 100 volts, it provides an output of 60 candles power. He obtained another patent on November 27, 1880.
At this point, he began to illuminate the place, starting from his house, using hydroelectric power, which was the first house in the world to be lit by electric light. After founding his company, Swan Electric Light Company Ltd., other residential and landmark buildings followed closely, including the Savoy Theatre with 1,200 lights and the Court of Justice in London.
However, there are still problems with cotton yarn, including any change in thickness that will cause uneven heating and make it unusable. He found a solution by removing nitrous acid from nitrocellulose (cotton is almost pure cellulose), dissolving the cellulose and extruding it into very thin threads. He also applied for a patent.
Independent of Swann, Thomas Edison also began experimenting with incandescent lamps in 1878, applied for his first lighting patent, and established the Edison Electric Light Company in the same year. He also uses Sprengel vacuum pumps. He used carbon wire and platinum at the same time, but ultimately chose carbon. His first success on October 22, 1879 lasted 13.5 hours. After further research, he applied for his most famous lighting patent on November 4, 1879, and obtained the patent in 1880. After that, Edison and his team realized that the carbonized bamboo filament lamp could last 1200 hours. Also in 1880, the Edison lamp was first installed outside the Edison Laboratory on SS Columbia, a freight and passenger ship.
Unlike Swann, Swann uses generators dedicated to the place of use, and Edison is installing power stations for the entire community. Therefore, he has both long-lasting incandescent lamps and a way to continuously power them.
As you might expect, Edison had patent disputes, the most famous of which is probably William Sawyer (William Sawyer), who had similar patents in 1877 and 1878, earlier than Edison. But Sawyer never got his wish, and the dispute was finally resolved in a way that favored Edison. In 1883, Edison merged the British Edison Company with the Swan Company to form the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, commonly known as Edison, thereby avoiding patent disputes with Swann, England. Another well-known patent bought by Edison is that of Canadian inventors Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans. They obtained a patent in 1874. Their light bulb uses carbon in a thin gas-filled glass tube. , The gas is nitrogen.
Alexander Lodygin, as we mentioned above since 1872, he had to leave Russia and did not stop the experiment at that time. Since 1886, he has obtained some American incandescent lamp patents and holds patents in France, Germany, Britain and Belgium. In the 1890s, he experimented with wire, and some people say that he was the first person to use tungsten wire. Tungsten filament lamps are brighter than carbon filament lamps and last longer.
Tungsten filament bulbs (right) and carbon fiber bulbs (right) from the first domestic series, by Zátonyi Sándor (ifj.), Fizped [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons However, it was on December 13, 1904 It was the Hungarian Sándor Just and the Croatian Franjo Hanaman who obtained the patent for the Hungarian tungsten bulb. They licensed the patent to Tungsram, a Hungarian company that produces and sells light bulbs. In 1906, while working at General Electric Company, William D. Coolidge found a way to make ductile tungsten from sintered tungsten and then make it into filaments. In 1911, General Electric began selling filaments in light bulbs.
Regarding the use of inert gas instead of vacuum in the bulb, we mentioned above that Alexander Rodikin, Woodward, and Evans tried to fill the bulb with nitrogen. However, in 1913 it was Irving Langmuir who discovered that by filling a tungsten filament bulb with an inert gas (such as argon), the life of the tungsten filament can be significantly extended. In 1930, the Hungarian Imre Bródy devised a method to obtain krypton gas from the air, thus first replacing argon with krypton gas.
In 1917, Burnie Lee Benbow found a way to make a coiled tungsten wire coil. In 1921, Junichi Miura used the coiled coil filament to make the first light bulb while working for Toshiba's predecessor, Hakunettsusha.
Finally, in 1924, American chemist Marvin Pipkin obtained a patent for frosting the inside of the bulb without weakening it, and in 1947 obtained a patent for coating the inside with silica, which allowed us to The light bulb emits the more diffuse light that many people have been with since childhood.
Therefore, in order to answer the question of who invented the light bulb, all the above and some others have been done, although these are the highlights.
However, this does not mean that we have no room for hackers. Take a look at this DIY incandescent lamp, it is made from a Dom Perignon champagne bottle, or carbon dioxide in a jar. It is great to see that in this era of CFL and LED bulbs, there is still a glimmer of light in the story of the bulb, which first illuminates our lives.
Here you can learn why incandescent bulbs can only be used for 1000 hours: http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy
Oh, for Pete's sake. Conspiracy theorists need to strengthen their game. A 2500-hour light bulb burns darker and is less efficient, so electricity costs are higher, and more power plant infrastructure is required to provide a given number of sockets or lumens. Brighter, more efficient bulbs have lower lighting costs per lumen hour, lower total cost of ownership, and can provide more people with a given amount of available electricity. Even if you have to replace the bulbs more frequently, you can achieve a win-win situation. The "secret conspiracy" that tin foil hat manufacturers are happy to rediscover every few years is nothing more than industry standardization and quality control improvements.
According to today's electricity prices, this makes sense. But at that time, the cost of the two and a half bulbs and the electricity used to light the less efficient bulbs did not increase.
At that time, electricity bills were too expensive. You may confuse the political propaganda of some modern factions with reality. The electricity infrastructure is poor, the losses are huge, the power generation efficiency is low and unreliable, and the electricity may be worth 5 light bulbs. This is a guess. But it does illustrate the point I am trying to make.
I can find some quotations, saying that the price of electricity in 1910 was 10-20 cents per kWh, while today's price is about US$3.50 per kWh.
Running a 40-watt bulb for 8 hours a day is equivalent to spending $8 a week.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/scribd/?title_id=4172&filepath=/files/docs/publications/bls/bls_0664_1939.pdf
In 1925, 7.20 cents per kilowatt-hour was equivalent to 97 cents per kilowatt-hour today, so a 60-watt light bulb consumed $60 in 1000 hours and $120 in 2000 hours.
The price of the bulb is about $5-7
An inefficient bulb that lasts twice as long can save you $5-7, but assuming you lose 10% more energy, it will cost you $12 in 2000 hours. Of course, this is assuming you notice the difference. You can use dimmable bulbs of equal wattage, and this is what happens when people have no way to measure the brightness of the bulb.
The result is that people prefer dimming bulbs because they have lower operating costs, so manufacturers are competing to make the darkest bulbs for the longest duration. All the advantages of tungsten filament bulbs are disappearing because of cheaper tantalum filament bulbs. It can burn for a long time at such a low brightness level.
The lifespan of incandescent bulbs is partly due to engineering compromises that allow the filament to run hot enough to approximate the efficiency of sunlight and gas fireplace lamps.
...Through this document, I learned a new word: Patentgemeinschaft.
Germans know more about the real purpose of patent pools, and I believe them!
Of course there are centennial bulbs http://www.centennialbulb.org/
The cartel is formed because the brightness/life of the bulb is impaired: the public cannot measure or compare the brightness of the bulb, because the human eye is rubbish in terms of absolute photometric measurement, so their only point of comparison is the life of the bulb.
The crooks make dimmable bulbs that consume more energy, which makes it a competition: if they do not standardize to 1,000 hours, then people will end up buying the least efficient bulbs, and the manufactured bulbs will be meaningless.
Strangely, when the industry regulates itself in this way, it is called corruption and conspiracy, and when the government enforces energy efficiency standards, it is called progress.
Call it "race to the bottom" and wonder why/not/doing this is called progress.
You don't fully understand.
The competition took place before the cartel was established and required maximum lifespan to increase lamp efficiency. That's because there is an insurmountable physical connection between these two functions-if manufacturers find that the life of the bulbs produced by manufacturers is too long, they must be at the expense of brightness and efficiency.
In other words, the cartel resolved the decline because the public could not trust the manufacturer to make the right bulb. Manufacturers tried to bid against each other by selling bulbs that were cheaper for consumers and longer-lived, but the quality and quantity of light became worse, and consumers no longer believed that a 60-watt bulb was the same as another 60-watt bulb Bright.
The conspiracy theory is that it is possible to make a light bulb that is bright and lasts more than 2,500 hours, but Cartel deliberately made the light bulb so inferior that it can only burn for 1,000 hours-but this is not the case: the brightness of an incandescent bulb is inversely proportional to Its life span is proportional: the hotter it runs, the brighter it is, and the faster it burns.
If the government issued an efficiency standard, a certain minimum candle power per watt, it would have exactly the same effect: the life of the bulb would be reduced across the board. This would have been called "progress", but because the industry decided to do it on its own, it was considered a case of insidious corruption
There is a documentary about this built-in obsolete: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/light-bulb-conspiracy/
"Starr died shortly thereafter, so he did not pursue commercial pursuits."
Being dead is a good reason not to pursue commercial things.
Well, maybe he could... maybe it was a matter of willpower, or he became a zombie (although it was not mentioned that he was some kind of zombie). In any case, history shows that zombies are not good merchants (because, well, how much do you know?). However, if he is just trying, then he is likely to become the first (perhaps the most successful) zombie entrepreneur.
Zombies don't need light, they can smell the brain.
How many zombies does it take to change a light bulb?
This is one of my favorite Hackaday lines!
There is also a Wiki with more information: http://conspiracy.wikia.com/wiki/Light_bulb_conspiracy
This is a good summary of the technical staff, their contributions really light up the world. However, I have a question: Where does the job of an inventor named Lewis Latimer fit? Latimer was widely praised for creating (or perfecting) the carbon filament that glowed in an incandescent light bulb in 1881. He also worked for Edison. Thanks!
If you want to see the actual operation of the Sprengel pump, YouTube’s Cody Lab built one and showed how it works. This is a beautiful little device. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viJ3T-1KZqY&ab_channel=Cody'sLab
OK! Thanks for that. An unexpected and pleasant side effect of writing this article is to surpass the old methods of creating a vacuum.
"In 1806, when William D. Coolidge was working at General Electric Company, he found a way to make tough tungsten..."
thanks. stable. When I arrived in the 1900s, I initially made this mistake with most of them. I guess I was trapped in the 1800s.
We could also have a "sulfur lamp" with superior spectrum and higher efficiency in 1910, but everyone was busy imitating each other without expecting it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_lamp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron
"Spectrum Superior" is a suspicious clam, considering that the best spectrum of the lamp depends on the brightness of the room where you use it. At low light levels, human perception of the red end of the spectrum will drop quickly, which is why when the room is quite dimly lit by one or two ordinary 60 watt equivalents, the color temperature should be very low.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruithof_curve
When daylight (4000-7000K) CFL bulbs were first launched on the market, it was once popular to buy daylight (4000-7000K) CFL bulbs because the light was “superior and natural”, but in actual use, they just killed your color vision and let All the rooms looked bleak and dull, and disturbed people's circadian rhythms.
Except that we don't talk about dim light sources at all, you can always use physical filters (such as lampshades) to reduce the color of the light. The key is that it is the complete visible spectrum, and there is almost no waste at the end that is invisible to humans.
This is not about the brightness of the light source, but about the brightness of the space being illuminated. You are not looking at the lamp you know.
Sulfur plasma lamps are too bright for living spaces. They cannot be scaled down well, and because of the magnetron, they are a huge source of radio interference, and after applying an absorption filter to the output, they are not very technically effective.
No matter what Dax is, they are all useful and used. Do some research on existing products.
Who said that the absorption filter, downshift is an effective quantum effect, it is suitable for LED housing, otherwise it will produce excessive blue output. In fact, you can use fluorescence to convert the ultraviolet light into the red end of the light, thereby making the output warmer. Win-win.
If you have a specular grid, RF is not a problem, the worst case is that this small area absorbs 5% or less of any small percentage it covers, and the rest is reflected, so it acts as a diffuser.
Are you arguing about it, or are you testing my knowledge?
>They are useful and used. Do some research on existing products.
Yes, if you need to light up a stadium. They are not much smaller than 500 W.
Cragside House in Rosebery, Northumberland is the home of Lord Armstrong. He was a friend and patron of Joseph Swann The light bulb combination is used for electric lighting (the light switch that we take for granted today has not been invented yet, so the lights on the first floor and the lights upstairs are on different circuits, and the lights on each floor are either fully on or fully off). Another Cragside innovation is to store electricity in batteries during peak power generation... the old is getting new again; eat your heart, Elon! :-) Cragside is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public. Many of the original lamps are still in use, but are equipped with LED lights and can be operated from a modern small hydroelectric power plant.
Cragside is the first house illuminated by *hydroelectric power*. The original Cragside lighting system was based on carbon arc lamps, but they were found to be too bright, smoke and burn unstable, so they produced a lot of flicker, and they often needed to manually reignite the arc during use. A few years later (depending on the source), in 1880 or 1886/7, Lord Armstrong hired Swann to light up the house with his improved lamp. Of course, by 1887, it was recorded that 45 swan lights were installed in Cragside.
Around 1879, John Henry Holmes created and displayed the "first light switch" in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Holmes participated in a public demonstration of Joseph Swan's incandescent lamp (probably Swans's demonstration on January 19 (Sunderland) or February (Newcastle), 1879), and became interested in this new field of invention. The switch demonstrated is an early prototype of his final switch design. The switch first adopted the "quick on/off" design that is still common in modern switching devices. This transformation is usually thought to have taken place in or after 1884, but there is some written evidence that he conducted an early demonstration around 1879 or 1880. There is a lot of evidence that Holmes has approached Swan many times, hoping to become his student or assistant, or even a business partner's suggestion-all of which were rejected by Swan. Allegedly, Swann did hire Holmes at some point to create an improved version of his switch for use with the Swan lamp, which may be the 1884 version alluded to as the "first". The date of 1884 may also be the date when the British patent was granted, so the conversion was actually carried out before this date.
In 1883, JH Holmes opened an electrical factory in Newcastle on Portland Road.
Interesting fact: In 1881, the "world's first" lamp factory was located in the Benwell area of Newcastle and used to manufacture Joseph Swan's new patented electric lamps.
HaD’s story is also somewhat incorrect-in 1880, Thomas Edison tried to take Joseph Swan to court (in the United Kingdom and the United States) on the grounds that he was suspected of infringing upon the development of a successful light bulb patent. Edison issued multiple public statements about Swann "stealing" his work. Swann had no choice but to counter-sued, even though he was unwilling to do so. But it is clear that the two inventors coincidentally carried out the development at the same time. In the end, the two parties agreed to create a shared ownership business in the UK (Swan has no real interest in making his own lights and would rather leave it to others).
1883-Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company is established (TYNESIDE) Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company is established. American inventor Thomas Edison collaborated with Tyneside industrialist Swann. Edison retained the exclusive ownership of the US patents and rights, and sold the Swan patents in the UK. Swan was later forced to leave the company, Edison took over and continued to make huge profits from the British company.
I hardly know all of this, thanks for posting it, Steven! Great article.
Great article, thank you Steven. I have been manufacturing incandescent bulbs for 5 years. Although we have accumulated all the knowledge, each light bulb is unique and there is still enough room to discover, invent and try new things. (Technically or aesthetically) It may seem simple to make one from the side, but in fact it is a complicated task (if you want to make a good work). You need a variety of knowledge, which is based on all the inventions and discoveries of the great people mentioned in the post... My two cents :) There are many others, I think we should respect, or Just think about it. Those who are engaged in vacuum glass metal seal development, glass, filament thermal cycle and bulb shape, degassing process, getter, later tungsten metallurgy (to obtain non-sagging and other types of filament)... they are not working directly On a light bulb, it would be impossible to make a good working light bulb without their invention.
Before the article is completely deleted from history.
http://www.abload.de/img/timiscgkvr.jpg
It is even an outdoor public display. I know, I know that "Cool Story Brothers" is what I expect of most people.
Here you go to http://www.timisoara-info.ro/en/sightseeing/historical-quarters/cetate/tours/224-felinarul.html. I would say this is an interesting story.
A key discovery about carbon filaments, namely how they managed to "metalize" carbon into graphite and who made it, there is little information available:
"Early carbon filaments have a negative temperature coefficient of resistance-as the temperature rises, their resistance will decrease. This makes the lamp very sensitive to power fluctuations, because a small increase in voltage will cause the filament to heat up, reducing its resistance and causing It further consumes more power and heat. In the "flashing" process, the carbon filament is heated by electric current in a vacuum vessel containing hydrocarbon vapor (usually gasoline). The carbon deposited on the filament is improved by this treatment The uniformity and strength of the filaments and their efficiency are improved. The metalized or "graphitized" filaments are first heated in a high-temperature oven before flashing and lamp assembly. This converts carbon to graphite, further strengthening and smoothing the filaments. This also changes The filament has a positive temperature coefficient, just like a metal conductor, and helps stabilize the power consumption, temperature and light output of the lamp to prevent small changes in the power supply voltage."
That contribution may be Lewis Latimer's. As I posted above, I know that he has extensive connections with the carbon filaments used by perfection.
Very interesting story. Edison was not interested in light bulbs, only provided an outlet for the electricity produced by his power plant. Reading a contemporary biography, you will find that this point is emphasized. The factor that aroused his interest was that there were no available sources of light bulbs in this country at the time. The story that Edison invented the light bulb but didn't get praise because he invented half of the "modern" telephone (the carbon button in the old desk phone) is part of the urban science legend.
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