Lights

© Brooke Clarke 2007

Background

The oldest light sources are the stars, and in our case the Sun.  On earth the oldest source of light is burning something.
Wiki List of Light Sources

Characteristics

The key characteristics of a light source are:

Types of Light Source

Indoor Air Polution

When any fuel in burned it consumes oxygen and gives off combustion products.  In The Art of Illumination by Louis Bell, McGraw-Hill Book Co, 1912 (Google Book) there's a table on page 155:

Consumed
per hr.
Candle1
Power
Oxygen
removed
cu ft
CO2
added
cu ft
Moisture
added
cu ft
Heat
calories
Vitiation Equal
to Adult
Persons
Tallow candles
2200 grains
16
10.7
7.3
8.2
1400
12.0
Speerm candles
1740 "
16
9.6
6.5
6.5
1137
11.0
Paraffin oil
992 "
16 6.2
4.5
3.5
1030
7.5
Kerosene oil
909"
16 5.9
4.1
3.3
1030
7.0
Coal gas, batwing bruner
5.5 cu ft
16 6.5
2.8
7.3
1194
5.0
Coal gas, Argand burner
4.8 "
16 5.8
2.6
6.4
1240
4.3
Coal gas regenerative burner
3.2 "
32
3.6
1.7
4.2
760
2.8
Coal gas Welsbach burner
3.5 "
60
4.1
1.8
4.7
763
3.0
Note 1: Lumens = 12.57  * Standard Candle Power, so 16 SCP is about 200 Lumens.  This was the size of Edison's light buble for many years. 
The author has this comment:
"The replacement of candles and lamps by gas worked a revolution, not only in the convenience of artifical lighting, but in its hygienic relations.  The older illuminants in proportion to their luminous effect removed prodigious amounts of oxygen from the air ang gave off large quantities of carbonic acid.  In the days of candels a brilliantly lighted room was almost of necesssity one in which the air was bad."
and
"It is somewhat startling to realize, but very desirable to remember, that a common gas burner will vitiate the air of a roomas much as four or five persons, in so far, at least, as vitiationcan be defined by change in the chemical composition of the air."



Burning Liquid Fuel

Mantle type lamps produce much more light than wick type lamps.  But mantle lamps do not have a hot body spectrum but instead have narrow peaks in the spectrum due to the rare earth elements that are impregnated into the mantle.  This is very similar to the "white" LEDs not one the market or to florescent lights.
This would include whale oil lamps, kerosene lamps, gasoline, diesel, etc.
580569  Lantern, Apr 13, 1897, 362/159 - wick type bicycle lantern
Aladdin (kerosene) - wick heats mantle
Coleman Kero-Lite  - wick heats mantle
2222092 Lamp Burner Assembly,  Nov 19, 1940, 431/102 ; 431/241; 431/307; 431/309
2235240 Mantel Holder, March 18, 1941, 431/111 ; 431/102; 431/113
2239346 Mantle April 22, 1941, 431/100 ; 66/169R
5533892  Liquid fuel lantern with electronic ignition, July 9, 1996, 431/264 ; 431/107; 431/255; 431/344
5836757  Liquid fuel lantern, Nov 17, 1998, 431/264 ; 431/107; 431/123

Petromax (almost any liquid fuel) - pressurized liquid, vaporized then burned without wick - Wiki
6439223 Lantern System (cooking top for Promax), Aug 27, 2002, 126/258 ; 126/48; 362/179; 362/180; 362/93; 431/344
6688877 Lantern and fuel system and method (methanol, i.e. no carbon monoxide) lantern, Feb 10, 2004, 431/104 ; 431/107; 431/218; 431/227; 431/228
6863526  Lantern and fuel system (O-ring seals), Mar 8, 2005, 431/100 ; 417/553; 431/103; 431/104; 431/107; 431/108
6887071  Lantern and fuel system (combined heat & light), May 3, 2005, 431/104 ; 431/100; 431/103; 431/107
I think the US GI M1950 gas single burner stove is from the Petromax design and was also made by Coleman as their camping stove.
The original air pump was made like a small version of a bicycle tire pump using leather as the seal.  The O-Ring modification replaces the leather with an O-ring making for a better seal.

Safety - to pervent the flame from igniting an explosive atomosphere.
Wolf - still makes electric lamps for explosive atmospheres, some are powered by compressed air

Burning Gas Fuel

These are mostly Gas mantle types.  This would inclde natural gas like was used for public lamps or propane like in camping lamps. 

Also "carbide lamps" that combine water and calcium carbideto make acetylene gas.  Note that you can not compress acetylene gas, but instead it needs to be absorbed in a liquid, like in welding tanks.  The carbide lamps typically have a long skinny white flame that puts out soot.  There are small versions of this lamp made to apply the soot to gun sights to make them black (to reduce the reflection of the sun).

Limelight is when Calcium Oxide is heated like with an oxygen-hydrogen flame.

656874 Acetylene Gas Lamp, Aug 28, 1900, 48/29 ; 48/4
1053516 Acetylene Lamp Feb 8, 1913 362/160 ; 48/4

Burning Solid Fuel

Candles are the most common but there are also chemical pellets what will burn.  A wood fire makes light and heat.

Electrical Lamps

This was one of Edison's inventions.
223898 Electric Lamp, T.A. Edison, Jan 27, 1880, 313/315 ; 201/25; 252/502; 264/29.2; 264/DIG.19; 313/333; 313/344; 313/578 uses a heated filament. 
Note that a filament type lamp will last longer if the filament is horizontal.  If the filament is vertical then the top gets hotter and fails sooner.  Most bulbs are designed to be either screwed into an overhead fixture or a table lamp but if that same bulb is screwed into a makeup mirror it will fail sooner.  There's a trade off in how long a filament lamp will operate and it's rated voltage and brightness.  Also there is a cost associated with bulb replacement.  All of these need to be taken into account when deciding which bulb is a "better buy".

There are also arc type lamps.  Gas filled lamps like neon get their color from the gas used.  Electroluminescent lamps use a very small amount of power but degrade with use and do not look nice after a year or more.  Light Emitting Diodes (LED) and the newer Organic LEDs are semiconductor junctions that emit light.  The fluorescent lamp is an electrical discharge type light source and the compact fluorescent is very energy efficient.
514170 Incandescent Electrical Light, N. Tesla, Feb 6, 1894, 313/315 - now called a plasma lamp.

A strobe light is only on for a very short amount of time, but is very bright.

When a fluorescent lamp bulb is in an RF field it will glow even though it's not connected to anything.
Livermore, Calif - Longest buring light bulb -" The improved incandescent lamp, invented by Adolphe A. Chaillet, was made by the Shelby Electric Company. It is a handblown bulb with carbon filament. Approximate wattage-4 watts. Left burning continuously in firehouse as a nightlight over the fire trucks."
Museum of Historic Discharge Lamps

Chemical Lamps

Light sticks work based on a chemical reaction. 
4064428 Chemical light device, December 20, 1977, 362/34 ; 222/94

Phosphors

When they are activated they give off light.  Commonly used in Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) and fluorescent lamps, white LEDs, night sticks.
Some laundry detergents have phosphors to make the whites look whiter (they glow under UV light).
A phosphor can be activated by light (including UV or black light), electrons, radioactivity or chemically.
A scintillator can be a crystal, plastic or liquid that emits a photon of light when it absorbs electromagnetic or atomic particle radiation.

Patents

class  48 is Gas: Heating and Illuminating (mostly Acetylene)
class 126 is Stoves and Furnaces
class 313 is Electric Lamp and Discharge Devices
class 362 is Illumination
class 431 is Combustion
/100 is Incandesent Mantle

Bicycle Lamp & Lantern Patents -


Back to Brooke's Home, Optics, Wet Batteries, Products for Sale, Military Information web pages.
02186 hits since May 05 2007 Page created 3 Feb 2007.