A brief history of Light Bulbs

The along with the wheel, the light bulb is one of the worlds’ most important inventions and if you like seeing at night more than driving, then you will no doubt view the light bulb without question as THE most important.

The light bulb as we know it today is a product of the work of more than 10 notable inventors from Germany, the UK and the USA over a period of 182 years.

It all started with an English Chemist, Sir Humphry Davy in 1809 who noticed that by passing electricity from a battery though a carbon strip, it glowed. This was the making of the first arc lamp. Humphry died in 1829, around one hundred and twenty years before seeing the light bulbs he was so instrumental in inventing, light up the trenches of World War 2.

About 11 years after Davy, another English inventor, Warren De la Rue created a light tube by passing an electrical current though a platinum filament contained in an evacuated tube. While a successful model, this was highly impractical for widespread use due to the cost of the platinum filament.

In 1854, all hats in the light bulb community were off in the direction of Germany. Henricg Globel, who by profession was a watchmaker created the first true light bulb, using a carbonised bamboo filament placed in a glass bulb. The term ‘globe’ in ‘globe light bulbs’ could have possibly been named after Henricg, although I am not at liberty to say.

Another German, Herman Sprengel provided another breakthrough, inventing the mercury vacuum pump making a strong vacuum inside the bulb possible. This allows a longer life light bulb as it removes the effects of oxidation on the filament.

The most famous of all the inventors who had a hand in the development of the Light Bulb and often (wrongly) handed the crown of inventing the light bulb is the American inventor Thomas Alva Edison who went on to pioneer other notable inventions such as the phonograph and the kinetophone (talking motion picture). For involvement in the development of the light bulb he invented a carbon filament that burned for 40hrs which he put in an oxygen-less bulb. By 1880 he had managed to extend the life of his bulb to over 1200 hours using a bamboo derived filament.

Tungsten popped its head into the light bulb world in 1906 when the General Electric company of America patented their use. At the time however, these filaments were costly.

In 1910, an American Physicist by the name of William David Coolidge (or William to his friends) came up with an improved method of making the tungsten filaments. His improved method greatly extended the life of existing filaments and made them much more economical.

The light bulb as we know it was made and continues to light up the dark nights

In 1991 Phillips invented a light bulb capable of over 60,000 hours. That’s almost 7 full years of illumination. Even more if you switch it off when you go to bed.