When was cfl bulb invented

The electronics giant contemplated licensing the design. Unfortunately, the design leaked out. Others copied it before GE started a licensing program. Hammer hasn't done badly either. He has published more than 40 papers and was awarded the Edison Medal by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic.

We delete comments that violate our policy , which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. In , Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp and on October 14, , Edison filed his first patent application for "Improvement In Electric Lights".

However, he continued to test several types of material for metal filaments to improve upon his original design and by Nov 4, , he filed another U.

Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including using "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," it was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over hours.

The remaining energy is lost as heat. However these inefficient light bulbs are still widely used today due to many advantages such as:. Unfortunately for the incandescent bulb, legislation in many countries, including the US, has mandated phasing it out for more energy-efficient options such as compact fluorescent lamps and LED lamps. There has been much resistance, however, to these policies owing to the low cost of incandescent bulbs, the instant availability of light and concerns of mercury contamination with CFLs.

Here at Bulbs. The many benefits of LED technology are summed up in this video. Two years later in , Edward Hammer at General Electric figured out how to bend the fluorescent tube into a spiral shape, creating the first compact fluorescent light CFL. Like Sylvania, General Electric shelved this design because the new machinery needed to mass-produce these lights was too expensive.

Consumers pointed to the high price as their number one obstacle in purchasing CFLs. Since the s, improvements in CFL performance, price, efficiency they use about 75 percent less energy than incandescents and lifetime they last about 10 times longer have made them a viable option for both renters and homeowners.

One of the fastest developing lighting technologies today is the light-emitting diode or LED. A type of solid-state lighting, LEDs use a semiconductor to convert electricity into light, are often small in area less than 1 square millimeter and emit light in a specific direction, reducing the need for reflectors and diffusers that can trap light.

They are also the most efficient lights on the market. Pale yellow and green diodes were invented next. As companies continued to improve red diodes and their manufacturing, they began appeari.

Explore the history of fluorescent lights , from the Geissler tube to CFLs. This interactive map is not viewable in your browser. US inventor Thomas Edison is often credited with creating the solution in the carbon filament light bulb. Yet the British chemist Warren de La Rue had solved the scientific challenges nearly 40 years earlier.