Object Details
- Description
- Irving Langmuir received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1906 from the University of Göttingen. He studied under Walther Nernst, who had invented a new type of incandescent lamp only a few years before. In 1909 Langmuir accepted a position at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. Ironically, he soon invented a lamp that made Nernst's lamp (and others) obsolete.
- Langmuir experimented with the bendable tungsten wire developed by his colleague William Coolidge. He wanted to find a way to keep tungsten lamps from "blackening" or growing dim as the inside of the bulb became coated with tungsten evaporated from the filament. Though he did not solve this problem, he did create a coiled-tungsten filament mounted in a gas-filled lamp—a design still used today.
- Up to that time all the air and other gasses were removed from lamps so the filaments could operate in a vacuum. Langmuir found that by putting nitrogen into a lamp, he could slow the evaporation of tungsten from the filament. He then found that thin filaments radiated heat faster than thick filaments, but the same thin filament–wound into a coil–radiated heat as if it were a solid rod the diameter of the coil. By 1913 Langmuir had gas–filled lamps that gave 12 to 20 lumens per watt (lpw), while Coolidge's vacuum lamps gave about 10 lpw.
- During the 1910s GE began phasing-in Langmuir's third generation tungsten lamps, calling them "Mazda C" lamps. Although today's lamps are different in detail (for example, argon is used rather than nitrogen), the basic concept is still the same. The lamp seen here was sent to the National Bureau of Standards in the mid 1920s for use as a standard lamp.
- Lamp characteristics: Brass medium-screw base with skirt and glass insulator. Two tungsten filaments (both are C9 configuration, mounted in parallel) with 6 support hooks and a support attaching each lead to the stem. The stem assembly includes welded connectors, angled-dumet leads, and a mica heat-shield attached to the leads above the press. The shield clips are welded to the press. Lamp is filled with nitrogen gas. Tipless, G-shaped envelope with neck.
- Credit Line
- from the U. S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards & Technology
- ca 1925
- ca. 1925
- ID Number
- 1992.0342.23
- accession number
- 1992.0342
- catalog number
- 1992.0342.23
- Object Name
- incandescent lamp
- Physical Description
- tungsten (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 8 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in; 21.59 cm x 13.97 cm
- Place Made
- United States: District of Columbia, Washington
- Related Publication
- Bright, Jr., Arthur A.. The Electric-Lamp Industry: Technological Change and Economic Development from 1800 to 1947
- Lighting A Revolution exhibition website
- Related Web Publication
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Energy & Power
- Measuring & Mapping
- Exhibition
- Lighting a Revolution
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_995747
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a8-7b24-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
