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Nov 6, 2017 · Humans have always relied on lighting to the overcome darkness. We explore the history of lighting from the invention of fire to modern day electricity.
1816: The world's first gas stage-lighting system is installed at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. 1817: Gas-lighting systems are installed in London's two legitimate houses: Drury Lane and Covent Garden. 1820s: Gas light is in experimental use in most countries of the Western World.
From the beginning of the 19th century London’s streets began to be illuminated, thanks to the invention of the gas lamp. During the course of the century street lighting spread to streets across the capital.
- Oil Lamps
- Lighting Fuels
- Gas Lights
- Electric Arc Lamps
- First Electric Incandescent Lamps
- Lightbulbs
- Gas Discharge Or Vapor Lamps
- Tungsten Filaments Replace Carbon Filaments
- Fluorescent Lamps
- Halogen Lights
In the 18th century, the central burner was invented, a major improvement in lamp design. The fuel source was now tightly enclosed in metal, and an adjustable metal tube was used to control the intensity of the fuel burning and intensity of the light. Around the same time, small glass chimneys were added to lamps to both protect the flame and contr...
Early lighting fuels consisted of olive oil, beeswax, fish oil, whale oil, sesame oil, nut oil, and similar substances. These were the most commonly used fuels until the late 18th century. However, the ancient Chinese collected natural gas in skins that were used for illumination. In 1859, drilling for petroleum oil began and the kerosene (a petrol...
In 1792, the first commercial use of gas lighting began when William Murdoch used coal gas for lighting his house in Redruth, Cornwall. German inventor Freidrich Winzer (Winsor) was the first person to patent coal gas lighting in 1804 and a "thermolampe" using gas distilled from wood was patented in 1799. David Melville received the first U.S. gas ...
Sir Humphrey Davyof England invented the first electric carbon arc lamp in 1801. A carbon arc lamp works by hooking two carbon rods to a source of electricity. With the other ends of the rods spaced at the right distance, electrical current will flow through an "arc" of vaporizing carbon creating an intense white light. All arc lamps use current ru...
Sir Joseph Swann of England and Thomas Edisonboth invented the first electric incandescent lamps during the 1870s. Incandescent light bulbs work in this way: electricity flows through the filament that is inside the bulb; the filament has resistance to the electricity; the resistance makes the filament heat to a high temperature; the heated filamen...
Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Alva Edison did not "invent" the first lightbulb, but rather he improved upon a 50-year-old idea. For example, two inventors that patented the incandescent light bulb before Thomas Edison did were Henry Woodward and Matthew Evan. According to the National Research Council of Canada: Suffice it to say, light bulbsd...
American, Peter Cooper Hewitt patented the mercury vapor lamp in 1901. This was an arc lamp that used mercury vapor enclosed in a glass bulb. Mercury vapor lamps were the forerunners to fluorescent lamps. High-pressure arc lights use a small bulb of high-pressure gas and include mercury vapor lamps, high-pressure sodium arc lamps, and metal halide ...
American, Irving Langmuir invented an electric gas-filled tungsten lampin 1915. This was an incandescent lamp that used tungsten rather than carbon or other metals as a filament inside the lightbulb and became the standard. Earlier lamps with carbon filaments were both inefficient and fragile and were soon replaced by tungsten filament lamps after ...
Friedrich Meyer, Hans Spanner, and Edmund Germer patented a fluorescent lampin 1927. One difference between mercury vapor and fluorescent lamps is that fluorescent bulbs are coated on the inside to increase efficiency. At first, beryllium was used as a coating however, beryllium was too toxic and was replaced with safer florescent chemicals.
U.S. Patent 2,883,571 was granted to Elmer Fridrich and Emmett Wiley for a tungsten halogen lamp - an improved type of incandescent lamp - in 1959. A better halogen light lamp was invented in 1960 by General Electric engineer Fredrick Moby. Moby was granted U.S. Patent 3,243,634 for his tungsten halogen A-lamp that could fit into a standard light b...
- Mary Bellis
Reflections on the Last One Hundred Years of Lighting in Great Britain, is the lucid and comprehensive history of the Society of Light and Lighting (and other developments). Acknowledgements. Authors: David Loe & Rosemary McIntosh. PDF Format. Standard Rate.
This section covers the issues to be considered when refurbishing historic internal lighting or designing and installing a new layout. Read on to find advice on light fittings, types of lamps and their suitability, installation, control systems and maintenance.
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Jan 28, 2020 · By the 1930s new homes in urban areas of Britain were being lit by electricity. It took time for the National Grid to roll out electricity to most of the country, but the number of homes wired up increased from 6% in 1919 to two thirds by the end of the 1930s.
