Incandescent lamp
An incandescent lamp is a source that produces artificial light. In the incandescent lamp, an electrical conductor, specifically tungsten, is heated by an electric current until it turns white red. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb under vacuum or with an inert gas that protects the filament from oxidation. Current is supplied to the filaments by terminals or wires enclosed in the crystal.
It is widely used today for lighting living spaces. However, since it is very inefficient (around 10-22 lm/W compared to 61-140 lm/W for white LEDs), in various places including the European Union, Switzerland, the PRC, and Australia, have implemented a ban on the manufacture and sale of incandescent lamps with low energy efficiency. This is aimed at increasing energy efficiency and thus saving energy.
History
In 1845, American John Wellington invented an incandescent lamp that proved too short-lived. In 1860, the Englishman Joseph Swan resumed research with a carbon filament, placed inside a glass container, but the problem remained the same: the vacuum created in the bulb was insufficient and the filament burned out in a few minutes. This invention made it possible to solve the problem of the division of electric light, as it was described at that time, and which consisted of the impossibility of having several points of light on at the same time in a single circuit.
Joseph Wilson Swan received the British patent for his device in 1879, about a year before Thomas Alva Edison. Swan reported the success to the Newcastle Chemical Society, and at a conference in February 1879, he demonstrated a working lamp. At the beginning of that year he began installing light bulbs in homes and signs in England. In 1881 he created his own company, The Swan Electric Light Company, and began commercial production. Thomas Alva Edison was the first to patent a carbon filament incandescent light bulb, viable outside of laboratories, that is, commercially viable, he patented it on January 27, 1880 (#285,898)..
Previously, other inventors had developed models that worked in the laboratory, including Henry Woodward, Mathew Evans, James Bowman Lindsay, William Sawyer, and Warren de la Rue.
German Heinrich Göbel had registered his own incandescent lamp in 1855, and on July 11, 1874, Russian engineer Aleksandr Lodygin was granted patent no. 1619 for an incandescent lamp. The Russian inventor used a carbon filament. Later, Edison's improvements allowed the incandescent lamp to last longer.
The light bulb is one of the inventions most used by human beings from its creation to date. According to a list in Life magazine, it is the second most useful invention of the 19th century.[citation needed] The commercialization of the light bulb by Edison's company was plagued by patent disputes with its competitors.
In 2009, a European Union Directive established a deadline for member states to stop manufacturing and marketing incandescent lamps. On September 1, 2009, the manufacture and distribution of lamps with a power equal to or greater than 100 W was prohibited, and on September 1, 2010, 75 W bulbs. One year later, on September 1, 2011, 60 W bulbs W and finally, on September 1, 2010, the 40 and 25 W bulbs were retired. Incandescent bulbs are being replaced by more efficient options, such as compact fluorescent bulbs and those based on LED technology.
In the Livermore (California) fire station, there is an incandescent light bulb that has been on since 1901, which means that in 2014 its useful life reached 989,880 hours.
Operation and parts of the incandescent bulb
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It consists of a very fine tungsten filament, enclosed in a glass ampoule that has been evacuated, or filled with an inert gas, to prevent the filament from volatilizing due to the high temperatures it reaches. It is completed with a metallic cap, in which the electrical connections are located.
The bulb varies in size proportionally to the power of the bulb, since the temperature of the filament is very high and, as power and heat release increase, it is necessary to increase the heat dissipation surface.
Initially, a vacuum was created inside the vial. Currently the bulb is filled with some noble gas (usually krypton or argon) that prevents the combustion of the filament.
The socket is used to fix the bulb in a lamp by means of a thread (called Edison screw) or a bayonet socket. In most of the world, screw caps for medium wattage light bulbs are designated with the Edison thread code E-27, this number representing the diameter in millimeters of its thread. A smaller thread size is also very frequent, the so-called E-14 for smaller powers, or Mignon thread, and the so-called Goliath, E-40, reserved for light bulbs. great power.
In countries like France or the United Kingdom, it is or has been in use for regular service for many years, the bayonet socket in its double contact versions, both wide bore (B22d or B-22d) similar in size to E-27 and suitable for standard bulbs, such as the narrow one (BA15d or BA-15d), equivalent to E-14 and therefore more suitable for small-sized bulbs, such as candle, spherical, miniature and decorative bulbs. This kind of bushing derives directly from the one originally devised by Swan, there are also single-contact versions, both in the aforementioned diameters and in narrower pitches, such as the BA-10 or the BA-5, 10 and 5 mm thick. diameter respectively.
In North America there are other standard gland types, although they are all of the thread type derived from the Edison original. Among them is, mainly, the E-26, which is exactly the primitive that Thomas Alva created, maintaining its measurements and its thread pitch. E-27 is fully compatible with it, and both apply to standard lamps in normal use. For small-sized lamps, in the United States they use a socket similar to the Mignon, although it is somewhat narrower; It is the E-12, also known as Candelabra, and its diameter is 12 mm. In turn, there is another intermediate type that comes from Japan, the E-17 or Intermediate, with a diameter of 17 mm and applicable to small and medium-sized lamps. As a curiosity, it must be mentioned that in Spain it is common to find such sizes of socket in the lamps that some Christmas garlands bring, which, naturally, are provided with the corresponding lamp holders, which, otherwise, are practically impossible to find. in that market.
For high power lamps, in North America a socket equivalent to the European E-40 is used, although with a millimeter less caliber, for which reason it is called E-39, although it is popularly known as Mogul. There are many other types of sockets for incandescent and discharge lamps, especially with regard to special applications, although the Edison screw or Swan bayonet types, in their different formats, are the most popular for normal uses.
Properties
The incandescent bulb is the one with the lowest luminous output of the bulbs used: from 12 to 18 lm/W (lumens per watt of power) and the one with the shortest useful life or durability: about 1000 hours, but it is the most widespread, due to its low price and the warm color of its light. This is normal, because it is the first, and it happens in all cases; the successive models would not have seen the light of day if they were not better. Although there were patents in the United States for light bulbs of up to 200,000 hours, they were never manufactured because they were economically unfeasible. In 1924 the Phoebus cartel, which brought together the main manufacturers in Europe and the United States, agreed to limit the useful life of electric light bulbs to 1,000 hours (planned obsolescence). Officially this cartel never existed.
It does not offer very good color reproduction, since it does not emit in the area of the spectrum of cold colors, but by having a continuous emission spectrum it manages to contain all the wavelengths in the part that emits of the spectrum.
Its efficiency is very low, since it only converts about 15% of the energy consumed into visible light. Another 25% is transformed into heat energy and the remaining 60% into non-perceivable radiation, ultraviolet light and infrared light, which end up becoming heat.
However, the concept of efficiency is relative, and it can be considered low only in the case that the conversion of electrical energy into light is contemplated. Precisely due to its supposed limitations, its use during the winter turns the incandescent lamp into an object that transforms electrical energy into light and heat in a perfectly efficient manner (for example, in a table lamp), especially in spaces where in turn Heating is required, since the heat it gives off is in the closest and most necessary place. In addition, in the comparison, for example, with energy-saving lamps, the manufacturing process, its mercury content and electromagnetic radiation must be considered. During the summer or in hot seasons, the idea of inefficiency due to waste of energy (in heat) would be valid.
Halogen lamp
An improvement of the incandescent lamp is the halogen lamp, based on the same principle, but with various improvements that achieve a slightly better light output and also a relatively better color output.
Mazda tests
In 1927, a series of tests were carried out in Hollywood to incorporate incandescent, or tungsten, lighting into the film industry. These tests were carried out due to the need to find lighting that would work with panchromatic films, which were becoming popular at the time.
Prior to testing, mercury vapor lamps or arc lamps were used. The first illuminated with a blue and green light, which until then had been sufficient since the orthochromatic films that were used were only sensitive to blue and violet tones. But with the advent of panchromatic film, sensitive to the entire color range, alternatives such as incandescent or tungsten lighting had to be sought.
Energy saving bulbs
Energy saving light bulbs use fluorescent technology to generate light with better energy efficiency than incandescent bulbs, but with the appearance of a light bulb. Some of the low consumption light bulbs also incorporate a nut that is compatible with that of incandescent light bulbs.
Luminous output of light bulbs is often expressed in watts (and luminous flux in lumens). Low consumption bulbs generate the same light as incandescent bulbs with lower consumption, although during start-up the consumption is much higher than what is recorded in real operation.
The power consumed by domestic incandescent bulbs usually varies between 40 W (low light) up to 100 W (more light), while the low consumption ones consume only between 7 and 23 W and give the same light as the of incandescence.
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