Lamp, carbon filament electric

In the early days of the carbon fiber electric lamp filament, it was the practice to coat carbonized rayon filaments with pyrolytic graphite [27] to improve the mechanical properties of the lamp filament. 

In 1899, Cross and Steam formed a laboratory-cum-pilot plant at Kew, London to make carbon fiber electric lamp filaments and artificial silk fibers. The national patent rights were gradually sold off and, in 1904, Courtaulds purchased the British rights, setting up a factory in Coventry, which was in production by 1905, becoming so successful that by 1909,... 

Niobium and tantalum suddenly received considerable attention about the year 1905 as possible materials for the filaments of incandescent electric lamps in place of the carbon filament then in use The metals were then prepared in the pure state for the first time by Dr Werner von Bolton,6 and their properties were examined. Niobium was found to be unsuitable for the purpose in view, but tantalum proved to be satisfactory. Tantalum lamps were manufactured in large quantities between the years 1905 and 1911, when the metal was displaced by the electrically more efficient tungsten. 

In 1905 niobium and tantalum received commercial attention, as possible material for electric lamps filaments to replace the fragile carbon then in use. Niobium was soon found to be useless, but tantalum with a melting point of 2850° C proved valuable, and was extensively used during 1905 to 1911. In 1910 the National... 

The development of viscose was largely the work of two English cellulose chemists. Cross and Bevan, who, with Beadle, received a patent on the process in 1892 [116]. In 1893, they sent a sample of viscose solution to Switzerland, where Charles H. Steam had been working with Charles F. Topham on carbon filaments for electric lamps. They had worked with nitrocellulose rayon for this purpose and had a small lamp factory for utilizing the carbon filaments. 

CFRPs are strong and light fiber-reinforced polymers. Carbon fibers are a new breed of high-strength materials. Carbon fiber contains at least 90% carbon prepared by controlled pyrolysis of rayon fibers [34]. The subsistence of carbon fiber came into use in 1879 when Edison took a patent for the fabrication of carbon filaments used in electric lamps [35]. The composites manufactured using carbon fiber reinforcements exhibit a range of mechanical properties suitable for many constructional, industrial, and automobile applications. 

After a short time each electron returns to its normal orbital, and the energy released may be manifested as radiation of a particular frequency (Planck s law). Incandescence is caused by heating, for example, in wire filaments and carbon arcs. Electrical stimulation is one cause of such excitation of specific atoms in vapors and gases. This occurs in sparks and mercury vapor lamps. In fluorescent tubes, ultraviolet (UV) emissions from mercury vapor lamps are... 

Carbon fibers, thought by many to be a relatively new material, actually have a long history as evidenced by the issuance of the first patent for incandescent electric lamp filaments (carbon fibers). The patent was issued to Thomas Edison in 1892. Hiram Maxim (the inventor of the machine gun, among other things) was issued a process patent for carbon fibers in 1899. Prior to the 1950s, these fibers had marginal strength and were used primarily for their electrical properties. 

To find a satisfactory element material, Edison was reputed to have tried more than 1600 kinds of materials ( paper and cloth, thread, fish line, fiber, celluloid, boxwood, coconut shells, spruce, hickory, hay, maple shavings, rosewood, soft dry wood rotted by fungal attack (punk), cork, flax, bamboo and incredibly the hair out of a red-headed Scotsman s beard ). Until eventually, Edison hit on the idea of carbonizing a loop of ordinary cotton thread, which glowed in a vacuum for more than half of that eventful day of 21 October, 1879. This filament was later replaced by carbonized Bristol cardboard that burned for 170 hours. The incandescent electric lamp had arrived. 

The history of cellulosic precursors is interesting because of its association with the early forms of carbon fiber used for electric lamp filaments. 

At about the same time as Edison was undertaking his work in the USA, Sir Joseph Swan in England had invented an electric lamp and in 1883, produced a precursor material for his carbon fiber lamp filaments by extruding a solution of nitrocellulose dissolved in acetic acid through a small hole into a bath of ethanol and collecting the drawn coagulated fiber, which he later denitrated with a solution of ammonium sulfide, to regenerate the initial cellulose. 

Several books and reviews have been published which detail the conversion of viscose rayon to carbon fibers [1-7], Chapter 3 has described how carbon fiber first came onto the scene, way back in 1880, with the introduction of Thomas Edison s electric lamp filaments made from cellulosic precursors. Almost 80 years later, in 1959, the National Carbon Company (a division of Union Carbide) introduced a carbon cloth from a rayon precursor, to be followed by a carbon yarn in 1961. These products are described by Cranch [8]. The best grade on offer was WYB cloth, which was processed at 2200°C and although called graphite, was a form of carbon that was non-graphitizing. 

The existence of carbon liber (CFs) came into being in 1879 when Thomas Edison recorded the use of carbon fiber as a filament element in electric lamp. Fibers were first prepared from rayon fibers by the US Union Carbide Corporation and the US Air Force Materials Laboratory in 1959 [41 ]. In 1960, it was realized that carbon fiber is very usefirl as reinforcement material in many applications. Since then a great deal of improvement has been made in the process and product through research work carried out in USA, Japan and UK. In 1960s, High strength Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber was first produced in Japan and UK and pitch based carbon fiber in Japan and USA. 

It is often the case that an old idea bears reexamination. In 1889, T. V. Hughes and C. R. Chambers patented a process for pyrolyzing marsh gas in iron crucibles to produce electric lamp filaments, one of many ideas whose time had not yet come. Today, General Motors Research (GMR) physicists are using hydrocarbon vapors to catalytically grow carbon fibers. The strong, stiff, discontinuous carbon fibers produced by this method have potential usefulness in many composite applications. 

The first commercial electric lamps of Edison and Swann involved incandescence produced by passing an electric current through a carbon filament. Modern incandescent lights use the same principle, but with the fragile carbon thread... 

Thomas Edison took out a patent for an electric lamp in 1880. The filament was made from carbonized cotton and Unen threads, wood splints and paper (Edison, 1880). 

The traditional carbon filament lamp, called a GLS (general lighting service) lamp, is hopelessly bad in energy-efficiency terms, producing only 14 lumens of light output for every electrical watt input. Fluorescent tubes and CFLs produce more than 40 lumens of light output for every electrical watt input. 

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