II.

Technology of Electric Lighting

If an electric current is passed through any conductor other than a perfect one, a certain amount of energy is expended that appears as heat in the conductor (see Conductor, Electrical). Inasmuch as any heated body will give off a certain amount of light at temperatures above 525°C (977°F), a conductor heated above that temperature by an electric current will act as a light source. The incandescent lamp consists of a filament of a material with a high melting point sealed inside a glass bulb from which the air has been evacuated, or which is filled with an inert gas. Filaments with high melting points must be used because the proportion of light energy to heat energy radiated by the filament rises as the temperature increases, and the most efficient light source is obtained at the highest filament temperature. Carbon filaments were employed in the first practical incandescent lamps, but modern lamps are universally made with filaments of fine tungsten wire (see Tungsten), which has a melting point of 3422°C (6192°F). The filament must be enclosed in either a vacuum or an inert atmosphere, otherwise the heated filament would react chemically with the surrounding atmosphere. Using an inert gas instead of a vacuum in incandescent lamps has the advantage of slowing evaporation of the filament, thus prolonging the life of the lamp. Most modern incandescent lamps are filled with a mixture of argon or krypton and a small amount of nitrogen.

Radical changes in incandescent lamp design have resulted from substituting compact fused-quartz glass tubes for glass bulbs. These new, stronger-walled bulbs have made tungsten-halogen lamps, a variation of the incandescent lamp, possible. Tungsten-halogen lamps use the regenerative cycle of halogens to return evaporated tungsten particles to the filament, thus extending the life of the bulb. The high temperatures required to take advantage of halogen’s regenerative cycle made this idea impossible until the walls of the bulb could be made stronger by the introduction of quartz. These bulbs are filled with a mixture of argon and halogen (usually bromine) gases along with a small amount of nitrogen.