To ensure companies complied with the new obsolescence regulations, they were obliged to send their products for independent testing in Switzerland. If the products displayed unwanted longevity, manufacturers faced heavy fines. Despite the cartel deliberately stagnating technological development, the incandescent bulb gained traction as one of the great innovations of the time.
By the end of the First World War, with cost of electricity plummeting, it was also presenting a serious alternative to gas lighting. Edison had not been wrong when he said only the rich would burn candles. According to research data published by Fouquet and Pearson, the cost of artificial light had fallen over the centuries from thousands of pounds per lumen hour to fractions of a penny as we evolved from the use of handmade candles to mass-produced light bulbs.
This fall in cost led to consumption of artificial light in the 20th century being , times more than it was in the 18th century. Energy and light was so abundant the market could afford to, and did, become complacent. The cost of powering artificial light was such that there was no real pressure to change the status quo until the oil crisis of the mid s. This triggered the emergence of the compact fluorescent light bulb CFL , which with energy efficiency five times greater than the incandescent technology made it a serious challenger.
With Philips and Osram bringing them to market by the early s, the first cracks in incandescent supremacy appeared. Efficiency became the buzzword. New technologies were queuing up to be the next big thing. The unthinkable was starting to happen: governments were passing legislation to phase out the incandescent light bulb. With the incandescent light bulb now effectively a dinosaur and all eyes on emergent LED technology as an environmental panacea, the next evolutionary phase of lighting is all about efficiency and legislation.
Given that incandescent light bulbs effectively waste as much as 95 per cent of their energy producing heat rather than light, there is massive potential for energy-saving in a world where alleviating demand on resources is increasingly legislated.
Looking at the US light bulb market in - around the time when phase-out legislation of incandescents was drafted around the world - there were eight billion lamps sold, of which half were incandescents, with barely 10 per cent LEDs. With universal agreement that there are massive energy savings to be gained, the world seems set for spontaneous change in how we illuminate it. Yet that predicted market revolution has been slow and reluctant, causing governments to step in to accelerate the change in our manufacturing and consumption patterns.
The EU has progressively banned various incandescent product types over the past decade, with this September seeing the phase-out of halogen and compact fluorescent lamps CFLs - effectively the end of the incandescent light bulb as we know it. The reality is that industrial and domestic are only now seriously beginning to undergo a step change, driven by the desire to phase in energy-efficient emerging technologies such as LEDs at the expense of incandescents and, now, halogen and compact fluoresecents, too.
As part of its review of its Ecodesign laws, the EU has published the necessity for replacement light sources to have minimum efficiency requirement of 85 lumens per watt and a maximum standby power of 0. Ecodesign requirements are mandatory for all standard bulbs, fluorescent lamps and spotlights sold in the EU. These regulations set energy-efficiency requirements and other factors such as bulb lifetime, warm-up time and energy labelling.
Energy-efficient lighting could save enough energy to power 11 million households for one year and avoid the emission of 12 million tonnes of CO2 in Europe. Yet not everybody is quite as enthusiastic about the benefits of LED replacement technology or the Ecodesign requirements, with the entertainment industry saying the EU directive will sound the death knell for dramatic lighting.
There is no time to lose. Toggle navigation Menu. History of the light bulb: early days to LEDs. Edison and his team of researchers in Edison's laboratory in Menlo Park, N.
In November , Edison filed a patent for an electric lamp with a carbon filament. The patent listed several materials that might be used for the filament, including cotton, linen and wood. Edison spent the next year finding the perfect filament for his new bulb, testing more than 6, plants to determine which material would burn the longest.
Several months after the patent was granted, Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could burn for more than 1, hours. Bamboo was used for the filaments in Edison's bulbs until it began to be replaced by longer-lasting materials in the s and early s.
In , Lewis Howard Latimer, one of Edison's researchers, patented a more efficient way of manufacturing carbon filaments. And in , Willis R. Whitney invented a treatment for these filaments that allowed them to burn bright without darkening the insides of their glass bulbs. William David Coolidge, an American physicist with General Electric, improved the company's method of manufacturing tungsten filaments in Tungsten , which has the highest melting point of any chemical element, was known by Edison to be an excellent material for light bulb filaments, but the machinery needed to produce super-fine tungsten wire was not available in the late 19th century.
Tungsten is still the primary material used in incandescent bulb filaments today. Light-emitting diodes LEDs are now considered the future of lighting due to a lower energy requirement to run, a lower monthly price tag, and a longer life than traditional incandescent light bulbs.
Nick Holonyak, an American scientist at General Electric, accidently invented the red LED light while trying to create a laser in the early s. As with other inventors, the principle that some semiconductors glowed when an electric current was applied had been known since the early s, but Holonyak was the first to patent it for use as a light fixture. Within a few years, yellow and green LEDs were added to the mix and used in several applications including indicator lights, calculator displays, and traffic lights, according to the DOE.
Today, lighting choices have expanded and people can choose different types of light bulbs, including compact fluorescent CFL bulbs work by heating a gas that produces ultraviolet light and LED bulbs. Several lighting companies are pushing the boundaries of what light bulbs can do, including Phillips and Stack. Phillips is one of several companies that have created wireless light bulbs that can be controlled via smartphone app.
The Phillips Hue uses LED technology that can quickly be turned on or off or dimmed by a flick on a smart phone screen and can also be programmed. Edison decided to try a carbonized cotton thread filament. When voltage was applied to the completed bulb, it began to radiate a soft orange glow. Just about fifteen hours later, the filament finally burned out.
Further experimentation produced filaments that could burn longer and longer with each test. Patent number , was given to Edison's electric lamp. The Edison lamp from our Attic is dated January 27, It is a product of the continued improvements Edison made to the bulb. Even though it is over a hundred years old, this bulb looks very much like the light bulbs lighting your house right now.
The base, or socket, on this 19th century lamp is similar to the ones still used today. It was one of the most important features of Edison's lamp and electrical system. The label on this bulb reads, "New Type Edison Lamp. Patented Jan. In the early s, Edison planned and supervised the construction of the first commercial, central electric power station in New York City. In , Edison began construction of a new laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.
Before he died in , Edison patented 1, of his inventions. The wonders of his mind include the microphone, telephone receiver, universal stock ticker, phonograph, kinetoscope used to view moving pictures , storage battery, electric pen, and mimeograph. Edison improved many other existing devices as well. From a discovery made by one of his associates, he patented the Edison effect now called thermionic diode , which is the basis for all electron tubes.
Edison will forever be remembered for his contributions to the incandescent light bulb. Even though he didn't dream up the first light bulb ever crafted, and technology continues to change every day, Edison's work with light bulbs was a spark of brilliance on the timeline of invention. At the very beginning of his experiments with the incandescent lamp in , he said:. Where this thing is going to stop Lord only knows. Note: The object pictured above is part of The Franklin Institute's protected collection of objects.
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