Object Details
- Fusion Lighting, Inc.
- Description
- In the mid-1990s Fusion Lighting began selling a microwave-powered lighting system. The small, spherical bulbs contained a small amount of the element sulfur that gave a large amount of good quality light when energized by microwaves. Company researchers began investigating other materials to learn more about their new light source and perhaps to discover another saleable product.
- The lamp is from one of those follow-on experiments and contains a mix of sulfur and another element, selenium. Both elements have related properties. Chemists refer to them as Group VI elements since they appear in the same column of the Periodic Table. Fusion researchers felt that these related elements might work well together in the new system. The company donated two other sulfur-selenium lamps from the same experiment that contain mixtures with differing ratios of the two elements.
- Lamp characteristics: A quartz stem with a notched metal sleeve near the bottom serves as the base. The notch locks the lamp into its fixture. The sphere has an argon gas filling with a tiny amount of Krypton-85 to help start the discharge. The orange material condensed on the inner wall is an equal mix of sulfur and selenium. The pattern of condensation indicates lamp was burned vertically. Tipless, G-shaped quartz envelope.
- Credit Line
- from Fusion Lighting Inc.
- 1997
- ID Number
- 1996.0359.08
- catalog number
- 1996.0359.08
- accession number
- 1996.0359
- Object Name
- discharge lamp
- Physical Description
- sulfur / selenium (overall material)
- quartz (overall material)
- metal (part material)
- Measurements
- overall: 5 3/4 in x 1 1/2 in; 14.605 cm x 3.81 cm
- Place Made
- United States: Maryland, Rockville
- Related Publication
- Turner, B. P.; Ury, M. G.; Leng, Y.; Love, W.G.. Sulfur Lamps -- Progress In Their Development
- Lighting A Revolution exhibition website
- Related Web Publication
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Energy & Power
- Industry & Manufacturing
- Exhibition
- Lighting a Revolution
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_751064
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-57f6-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
