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Introduction
phrase 'in the limelight'. This form of light production was, however,
not without its problems, including that of fire.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries artificial lighting went
through a period of tremendous excitement. The burning of gas obtained
from heated coal paved the way for a new form of lighting and in 1792
William Murdoch installed gas piping and jets in his property in Cornwall.
In 1827 the friction match was invented; prior to this time tinder boxes
containing flints, steel and wood splinters tipped in sulphur were used in
order to start a flame. In 1860 mineral oil was turned into paraffin which
was used for lamps and for the manufacture of wax candles.
In 1885 Count Aver von Welsbach began investigating the character-
istics exhibited by rare earths when they were heated. In 1893 he devel-
oped the incandescent mantle where the production of light is not
dependent upon the luminosity of the flame produced but upon the level
of incandescence to which the mantle is raised.
There were major problems associated with the use of gas for light-
ing. It was both poisonous and explosive and incidents involving leaks
and other malfunctions often led to catastrophic consequences.
In an attempt to provide other means of artificial lighting, there had
been some experimental work with the use of electricity. In 1810, and
whilst gas lighting was still the dominant source, Sir Humphrey Davy
had shown that an arc could be established following the separation of
two touching carbon rods which formed part of an electrical circuit. The
arc lamp was not established in widespread use, however, until the
1850s. The quantity of light produced by the arc coupled with the
requirement for a suitable electrical supply precluded its use in domes-
tic installations. It was used predominantly for public lighting, building
lighting and in lighthouses. As with the earlier light sources which were
totally dependent upon the production of flames, arc lighting was messy
to maintain.
Michael Faraday's discovery of the principles of electromagnetism in
1831 paved the way for electric lighting in its present form. The first
practical electric lamp was the incandescent filament lamp produced
almost in parallel in 1879 by Swan in the United Kingdom and Edison
in the United States. The first domestic electric lighting system using
filament lamps was installed in 1880 by Lord Armstrong in Northum-
berland, the lamps being supplied by a water-driven dynamo.
The production of artificial light by electrical discharges was achieved
almost by accident since the early scientists were primarily concerned
with the manner in which electricity was conducted through a partial
vacuum.
Peter Cooper-Hewitt introduced his mercury-arc lamp in 1901. The
mercury was contained in a sealed discharge tube and in order to start
the discharge, the lamp had to be manually tilted so that the mercury
would fall down to the lower electrode and the arc would establish.
Early attempts at commercial discharge lighting met with limited
success and it was not until the early 1930s that lamps were produced
which found universal approval, these being based upon the use of
sodium and mercury. By the late 1930s fluorescent lamps were being
produced.
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