Fluorescent Lamp(1926)

Fluorescent Lamp(1926)

           If one individual can be said to have "invented" the fluorescent light, it was probably Edmund Germer (1901-1987), although many scientists and inventors, including Heinrich Geissler and Thomas Edison, contributed to its creation.

          

          A fluorescent bulb works by passing an electric current through mercury  vapor in a low-pressure inert gas. This causes the electrons in the atoms to "move", releasing ultraviolet light. Unfortunately we cannot see ultraviolet, so the inside of the tube is coated in phosphorous powder, which absorbs the ultraviolet light and re-emits it as visible light. This elaborate process leads to lights that are cooler and more efficient than incandescent ones.

      

       

 possibly because its process of manufacture was more complex than that of incandescent bulbs, the commercial use of the fluorescent bulb was not really realized until the 1920's despite much experimentation throughout first decades of the 1900's. In 1926, Jacques Risler was granted a patent for a neon-based tube with a fluorescent coating, mainly used for advertising purposes, but apart from this the fluorescent bulb languished in obscurity.

      

          The patent received by Gemer, Meyer, and Spanner was for a high-presure mercury vapor lamp. Although this lamp did not go into production, it was similar ro a patent application filed by General Electric, which was also trying to develop a fluorescent lamp at the time. After some legal wrangling, General Electric paid off Germer et al, and acquired the patent, thus becoming the dominant manufacturing force for fluorescent tubes. A circular tube lamp with magnifier (1967); a battery- operated hand lamp(1966); and a bench lamp(1957).