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The incandescent light bulb was invented and continued to develop from the early 1800s. Prior to this, simple candles and oil lamps, and other similar lighting was utilized in everyday life. The journey of the incandescent lamp began in 1809 when Humphrey Davy produced the very first arc lamp by inducing current in between two charcoal strips using a high powered battery. This was followed up through to the 1880s, with various incandescent light bulbs becoming produced by various groups and people. All had the same thought of making a light bulb which contained an element having a high melting point, such as platinum, inside an evacuated chamber.

Various high melting point materials were used to attempt to produce a practical, cost effective incandescent lamp with a prolonged life. The theory was, the greater the temperature, the brighter the light. Consequently the higher the melting point of the material, the more successfully the lamp would work at high temperatures, resulting in the emission of a brighter ligh. The element would also have less gas particles to react with inside an evacuated chamber resulting in a longer life span. Numerous individuals created light bulbs in this way, however the struggle was to produce 1 which lasted for substantial periods of time. The first incandescent lamp which lasted a practical length of time was developed by Edison and Swan in 1879, which lasted about 13 5 hours. However, in 1880 Edison created a filament which lasted for up to 1200 hours - the best life-span by far.

An incandescent lamps efficiency is focused upon reaching high filament temperatures, but with a minimal amount of heat loss and degrading. The greater the amount of heat which is lost and also the quicker the filament degrades, the less effective the light bulb is. Edison utilized carbon filaments within his early incandescent light bulbs as this has the highest melting temperature, however it evaporates at a rapid rate, resulting in a shorter life span. The life span was increased by the filament being operated in a lower temperate, although the brightness of the lamp also decreased.

Within the early 1900s, the much more modern tungsten filament incandescent lightbulb was devised by William Coolidge along with the General Electric Company. This is the light bulb we know today used for indoor or outdoor lights. This element really enhanced performance of light bulbs because of its strength, pliability, workability, high melting point and low evaporation rate. The high melting point of tungsten resulted in a very bright light, even though it still evaporate fairly quickly. Numerous inert gases such as nitrogen were added to light bulbs which reduced the rate of evaporation to increase filament life, however, this also affected the temperature of the filament, resulting in a dimmer light. Making a coil from the filament was confirmed to have success in maintaining a higher temperature, therefore having a brighter light. Coiled filaments are continually utilized in incandescent lamps nowadays.

Incandescent light bulbs still lose a lot of heat, with only 4-6% of the power being supplied to bulbs being converted to light, as much as 96% is wasted as heat. Consequently energy saving light bulbs, also known as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were eventually created.

The original fluorescent lamp was invented in the late 1890s. Since, numerous companies and individuals have developed on this idea to create practical fluorescent lamps which had been originally sold in 1938. The shape of the fluorescent lamp began as a long fixture, which then progressed into circular and u-shaped lamps after which into the three-dimensional spiral (helical). Even though the helical lamp was developed in the 1970s, the design didn't go ahead, and was later copied by other people in the mid 90s when is was sold commercially. Energy light bulbs had been introduced by large companies such as Philips and Osram in the 80s, which included the very first effective replacement for screw-in incandescent lamps with an integral ballast, and the first CFL to include an electronic ballast.

Original eco lamps frequently weredull and flickered as the technologies were still to be developed. Nowadays they really are a brand new generation. They are incredibly efficient, saving as much as 80% of power, extremely bright and have a very lengthy life span, lasting around 8x longer than tradition incandescent lamps.

The journey of incandescent light bulbs used for indoor or garden lighting has now come to an end, with all wattages soon to be banned within the United Kingdom, nevertheless the journey for energy saving light bulbs and LEDs is only just beginning !