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The incandescent light bulb was invented and continued to develop from the early 1800s. Prior to this, basic candles and oil lamps, and other similar lighting was used in everyday life. The journey of the incandescent lamp began in 1809 when Humphrey Davy created the first arc lamp by inducing current in between two charcoal strips using a high powered battery. This was followed up throughout to the 1880s, with numerous incandescent light bulbs being produced by different groups and people. All had exactly the same idea of making a light bulb which contained an element having a high melting point, such as platinum, inside an evacuated chamber.

Numerous high melting point materials had been utilized to attempt to produce a practical, cost effective incandescent lamp with a prolonged life. The theory was, the greater the temperature, the brighter the light. Consequently the higher the melting point of the material, the much more effectively the lamp would function at high temperatures, resulting in the emission of a brighter ligh. The element would also have less gas particles to react with inside an evacuated chamber resulting in a longer life span. Many people created light bulbs in this way, however the struggle was to produce 1 which lasted for substantial periods of time. The very first incandescent lamp which lasted a practical length of time was developed by Edison and Swan in 1879, which lasted around 13 and a half hours. However, in 1880 Edison produced a filament which lasted for as much as 1200 hours - the best life-span by far.

An incandescent lamps efficiency is focused upon reaching high filament temperatures, but with a minimal amount of heat loss and degrading. The more heat that is lost and also the faster the filament degrades, the less effective the light bulb is. Edison utilized carbon filaments within his early incandescent light bulbs as this has the highest melting temperature, however it evaporates at a rapid rate, resulting in a shorter life span. The life span was improved by the filament starting to be operated in a lower temperate, however the brightness of the lamp also decreased.

In the early 1900s, the much more modern tungsten filament incandescent lightbulb was devised by William Coolidge along with the General Electric Company. This is the light bulb we know nowadays used for indoor or outdoor lighting. This element really enhanced performance of light bulbs because of its strength, pliability, workability, high melting point and low evaporation rate. The high melting point of tungsten resulted in a very bright light, although it still evaporate fairly quick. Various inert gases like nitrogen had been added to the light bulbs which reduced the rate of evaporation to improve filament life, however, this also affected the temperature of the filament, resulting in a dimmer light. Creating a coil from the filament was confirmed to have good results in sustaining a greater temperature, thus sustaining a brighter light. Coiled filaments are continually utilized in incandescent lamps today.

Incandescent light bulbs even now shed lots of heat, with only 4-6% of the power being supplied to bulbs being converted to light, as much as 96% is wasted as heat. Therefore energy saving light bulbs, also known as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were eventually created.

The original fluorescent lamp was invented in the late 1890s. Since, various businesses and individuals have developed on this thought to produce practical fluorescent lamps which had been originally sold in 1938. The shape of the fluorescent lamp began as a lengthy fixture, which then progressed into circular and u-shaped lamps and then into the three-dimensional spiral (helical). Although the helical lamp was developed within the 1970s, the design never go ahead, and was later copied by other people within the mid 90s when is was sold commercially. Eco light bulbs had been introduced by large companies such as Philips and Osram within the 80s, which included the very first successful replacement for screw-in incandescent lamps with an integral ballast, and also the first CFL to include an electronic ballast.

Original eco lamps frequently weredull and flickered as the technology were continuing being developed. These days they really are a new generation. They are incredibly efficient, saving as much as 80% of power, extremely bright and have a very long life span, lasting around 8x longer than tradition incandescent lamps.

The journey of incandescent light bulbs used for indoor or garden lighting has now come to an close, with all wattages soon to be banned within the United Kingdom, nevertheless the journey for energy saving light bulbs and LEDs is only just beginning !