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1835- incandescent bulb
James Bowan Lindsay was the first to contain an electrical charge inside a glass bulb, but his design was an unreliable source at this time. -
1802- incandescent bulb
Sir Humphrey Dave was the first to discover the incandescence in a platinum wire, but sadly this had a short lifespan as the platinum wire melted very quickly. -
1841- incandescent bulb
Frederick De Moleyns was an English inventor who patented the incandescent bulb within a glass. This too had a short lifespan as his bulbs blackened. -
1856- fluorescent lamp
Heinrich Geissler invented the Geissler Tube which is the foundation of many arc discharge lamps. -
1859- fluorescent lamp
Alexander-Edmund Becquerel was the first experiment with the phosphor coating on the inside of the fluorescent discharge tubes. -
1879 -incandescent bulb
Thomas A. Edison and Sir Joseph Swan came up with the idea of a high resistance filament at the same time but neither copied the other and both had original ideas (one bulb had the bayonet base and the other had the screw in base). -
1891-fluorescent lamp
Nikola Tesla invented the first high frequency ballast. This was the predecessor to newer fluorescent lamp ballasts -
1895-fluorescent lamp
Daniel Mcafalan Moore developed the first commercial discharge lamp he used Co2 (carbon di-oxide) and nitrogen gas. -
1896-fluorescent lamp
Thomas A. Edison and Clarence Dally created a lamp that used x-Rays and calcium tungsten phosphor. -
1901-fluorescent lamp
Peter Cooper Hewitt invented the practicle Mercury vapor lamp which is now the basis of modern fluorescent lamps. -
1907- L.E.D's
H. J. Round used the cat whisker detector to find a sweet spot on a crystal silicon carbide which, strangely, glowed a pale yellow colour, this was an L.E.D. -
1911- incandescent bulb
William D. Coolidge invented the ductile tungsten which we still use today in incandescent, fluorescent and HID lamps. -
1912- incandescent bulb
Irving Langmuir came up with the idea of a gas filled incandescent bulb. Along with Lewi Tanks he created the argon filled bulb which contributed to greater efficiency. He also came up with the idea of coiling and double coiling the filaments which made them more efficient. -
1922- L.E.D's
Oleg Vladmirovich Losev noticed that certain diodes in radios glowed in radios when they were in use. He later published his findings but these were sadly unnoticed. -
1925- incandescent bulb
Marvin Pipkin created the frosted etched bulb. -
1926- fluorescent lamp
Edmund Germer created the first modern lamp using HG vapour and phosphorus, this worked well but gave off an unappealing green light and therefore had a short lifespan. -
1927- fluorescent lamp
Albert W. Hull improved the electrodes and physics research. He did more research on plasma physics used in fluorescent lamps. He also developed electrodes that would not disintegrate therefore ensuring a longer lifespan. -
1934- fluorescent lamp
Richard Thayer and George Inman created the first fluorescent light with real white phosphorus and a long lifespan. This was the first reliable lamp that was made in a lab and sold commercially. It was the Mazda F lamp and the first was sold in 1938. -
1947- incandescent bulb
Marvin Pipkin created the silica coating on the inside if the lamps which, like the frosted etched bulb, reduced the glare and defuses the light therefore less light output is lost. -
1962- L.E.D's
Nick Holonyak created the visible light emitting diode (L.E.D) he was known as the father of the L.E.D. -
1976- fluorescent lamp
The CFL was invented, this model was a spiral CFL, it has a higher efficiency then the straight lamps. -
1970's-80's- fluorescent lamp
John M. Anderson improved the fluorescent light. He developed the dimable fluorescent lamp, better electrodes and the short arc fluorescent lamp. -
2000-2015- L.E.D's
In the past few years the L.E.D lights have been pushed forward as they are a more energy efficient choice and give off better lighting then other lights. Even though the L.E.D has many advantages they are still not mainstream as they are nearly five times more expensive then normal bulbs.
