Nernst lamps

The first observations of ionic transport in solids were made by - Faraday [iii, iv]. See also - Nernst lamp. 

Nernst lamp — Figure. Nernst lamp (Copyright Museum fur En-ergiegeschichte, Hannover)... 

Nernst quickly grasped the importance of new discoveries and theories (such as the quantum theory) and liked to re-shape the latter into a more concise and intelligible form. He was an excellent experimenter, devising much new apparatus, but (like Ostwald) he had an aversion to complicated and expensive instruments. He devised the Nernst lamp and was interested in industrial applications of science. He received the Nobel prize in 1920. I had the privilege of working in his laboratory in 191 i i3. ... 

Walther Hermann Nernst (1864-1941, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1920), a German chemist, is one of the founders of modern physicai chemistry. He worked on thermodynamics, electrochemistry, solid state and photochemistry, osmotic pressure, and electroacoustics. In 1887 he invented the Nernst lamp by using an incandescent ceramic rod (a precursor of the incandescent lamp). He established the third law of thermodynamics that describes the behavior of matter as the temperature approach absolute zero (1905). In association with the companies Bechstein and Siemens, he also invented the electric piano (1930) to produce electronically modified sound in the same way as an electric guitar. 

It was not until 1943 that Wagner [22] (in memory of Walther Nernst who died on 18 November 1941) recognised the existence of vacancies in the anion sublattice of mixed oxide solid solutions and thus explained the conduction mechanism of the Nernst glowers. We now know that Nernst lamp filaments... 

Figure 1.7 shows a Nernst lamp. The lamp needed to be heated up before it generated light. This was done by additional heating resistors (indicated as i). All elements of the lamp were placed inside a glass casing, which was filled by air. 

The Nernst lamp bulb was nearly 80% more efficient than the carbon fiber bulb. But it was difficult to produce reliable contacts for the glower and the platinum heater made the lamp very expensive. Glowers also had to be protected from melting by special isolators. Turning on the lamp s glow took about half a minute. The Nernst lamp was the first commercially produced solid electrolyte gas cell (Table 1.2). 

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