The growth and expansion of collections was particularly pronounced in the fields of mining and mineral industry; mechanical engineering, particularly in relation to the steam engine, internal combustion engine and locomotives; shipbuilding and electrical engineering, especially the development of the telegraph, telephone and electric light. In acquiring objects that visualize the history of electric light, the museum has been quite fortunate, especially in terms of developments in the United States.
CHRONOLOGY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT
XII CHRONOLOGY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT
Auer von Welsbach invention of the osmium light bulb Commercially established, but only on a small scale in Europe.
HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT
Around 1650 he made a machine consisting of a ball of sulfur mounted on a shaft that could be turned. He also discovered that electricity could be conducted through a chain from the globe and would appear at the other end of the chain.
THE LEYDEN JAR
ELECTRICITY GENERATED BY CHEMICAL MEANS
4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 by touching the nerve with a metal rod and the muscle with a different
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT — SCHROEUER 5
RESEARCHES OF OERSTED, AMPERE, SCHWEIGGER AND STURGEON Hans Christian Oersted was a professor of physics at the Uni-
About 1825, Ohm discovered, by analogy and experiment, that the current in a conductor is proportional to the difference in electrical pressure (voltage) between the ends. He further showed that for a given voltage difference, the current in different conductors is inversely proportional to the resistance of the conductor.
INVENTION OF THE DYNAMO
Several trolley cars at the end of a line take 100 amperes to run them, and the resistance of the overhead cable from the power house to the trolley is an ohm and a half; the voltage drop on the line between the powerhouse and the trolley cars is therefore 50 volts, so if the voltage at the powerhouse was 600, it would be 550 volts at the end of the line. 28, 1831, he mounted a copper disc on an axle so that the disc could be rotated between the poles of a permanent horseshoe magnet.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT — SCHROEDER
10 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 lighting companies, six dollars would operate Davy's arc light about
2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER II sulfuric acid on the zinc, combined with the dissolved copper sulfuric acid on the zinc, combined with the dissolved copper sulfate, formed sulfuric acid and metallic copper. This pot was putin dilute sulfuric acid in a glass jar in which there was an amalgamated zinc plate for the other electrode.
12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 hydrogen gas set free by the action of the sulphuric acid on the zinc,
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 13 GRENET BATTERY
DE MOLEYNS' INCANDESCENT LAMP
Another platinum wire wound on its upper end came up through the lower part of the globe, but did not quite touch the other platinum coil. The powdered coal filled the two coils of platinum wire and bridged the gap.
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS OF THE ARC LAMP
Two of the disks could be pulled outwards by means of thumb screws, which were placed after the current was reversed thus creating four arcs, one between each pair of disks. The weight of the lower electrode was overbalanced by a counterweight, so that when no current passed, the two carbons touched.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT — SCHROEDER 1
SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 was sealed in the upper closed end of a large glass tube, and connected
OTHER EARLY INCANDESCENT LAMPS
Newport, Rhode Island, lit the hall in his home at 11 Pearl Street, Salem, Mass., during July 1859, with several incandescent lamps with a strip of platinum for the burner. Heat is directed away from the terminals and by making the burner thin at these points, the greater the resistance.
FURTHER ARC LAMP DEVELOPMENTS
The arc was controlled by an electromagnet which held the iron tube to which the upper carbon was attached. In the same year (1852) Slater and Watson obtained an English patent for an arc lamp in which the upper part of the carbon was movable and held in place by two clutches operated by electromagnets.
22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1^
The pull of the series magnet closed the valve that fixes the height of the column. Current would then flow through the contact between the two carbons and through the series magnet, closing the valve.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DYNAMO, 184O-1860
The difference in consumption of the two carbons was therefore compensated by the difference in size of the drums, thus maintaining the location of the arc in a fixed position. Both carbons are movable, held in place by chains wound around drums controlled by ratchets driven by an electromagnet.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 25 flow through a coil surrounding each permanent magnet to further
THE FIRST COMMERCIAL INSTALLATION OF AN ELECTRIC LIGHT In 1862 a Serrin type of arc lamp was installed in the Dungeness
This was the dynamo used in the first commercial installation of an arc at the Dungeness Lighthouse in England in 1862. About the only change to the dynamo was the substitution of commutator slip rings to overcome communication problems.
FURTHER DYNAMO DEVELOPMENTS
28 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76
2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 29Hollander, in 1842, and by Pacinnotti, an Italian, as evidenced by the Hollander, in 1842, and by Pacinnotti, an Italian, as evidenced by the crude engines (not dynamos) they had made. The armature winding was located entirely on the surface of the armature core, a principle now used in all alternators.
RUSSIAN INCANDESCENT LAMP INVENTORS
When that part burned out, the rod was automatically pushed up so that a new part was in the circuit. When this part burned out, the rod was automatically raised, and a fresh part was then in the circuit.
THE JABLOCHKOFF CANDLE
A long graphite rod, the top of which was only in the circuit, operated in a vacuum.
32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 arc being started by a thin piece of carbon across the tips of the car-
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 33
COMMERCIAL INTRODUCTION OF THE DIFFERENTIALLY CONTROLLED ARC LAMP
ARC LIGHTING IN THE UNITED STATES
34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, J^
One end of the one pair of coils in the most active position is connected by means of two of the four brushes in series with one end of the two pairs of coils in the less active position. The outer circuit was connected to the other two brushes, one of which was connected to the other side of the most active pair of coils.
38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76
This happened when the lamp was started, and then the arc voltage was constant due to the balance between the spring and the shunt magnet. Heavy crimped wires connected the burner to the heat-dissipating base to keep the joint in the base cool.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 43 EDJSON S INVENTION OF A PRACTICAL INCANDESCENT LAMP
44 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 45 an intensive study of gas distribution and reasoned that a constant
2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER .47 oxygen of the air, he coated it with oxide of zirconium. Examination of the platinum under a microscope showed that it was much less porous after heating, SO he reasoned that gases were trapped throughout the platinum and were driven out by the heat.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 49 up if the slightest trace of oxygen were present, so he heated the
The first commercially successful installation of incandescent lamps and the Edison lighting system was on the steamship Columbia, which began on May 2, 1880, on a voyage around Cape Horn to San Francisco, California. The earliest form of base consisted simply of bending two lamp wires back into the lamp neck and holding them in place by wrapping twine around the neck.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 51 a thumb screw which forced the socket terminals tight against the
52 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, 76 firmly screwed in the socket often caused the plaster base to pull apart,
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 53
The neutral wire had to be large enough to carry the difference between the currents flowing in the two circuits. Since the load could be arranged to be approximately common at all times in both circuits, the neutral wire could be relatively small in size.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALTERNATING CURRENT CONSTANT POTENTIAL SYSTEM
76impossible to make 220 volt lamps, thinking they are now available, impossible to make 220 volt lamps available, thinking they are now available, their use is uneconomical, as their efficiency is much worse than that of iio volt bulbs . Edison invented a distribution system having two iio-volt circuits, with one wire, called the neutral, common to both circuits so that the pressure on the two outer wires was 220 volts.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 55
This thread was washed in water, air-dried, and then cut to length and carbonized. Another, more generally adopted in 1893 was a process originally invented by Sawyer, one of the Americans who had attempted to "subdivide electric light" in 1878-79.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 57 consisted of passing current through a carhonized filament in an
58 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 59
They were called Bernstein, Heisler, Large Edison, Municipal Bernstein, Municipal Edison, Thomson-Houston (alternating circuit) and Thomson-Houston (arc circuit). A campaign to standardize the Edison base began, with adapters sold at cost for Westinghouse and Thomson-Houston sockets to allow Edison-base lamps to be used.
THE EDISON " MUNICIPAL " STREET LIGHTING SYSTEM The arc lamp could not practically be made in a unit smaller than
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 63
76 later simplified by removing the wire, spring, etc., and substituting a later simplified by omitting the wire, spring, etc., and replacing a piece of metal that was prevented from shorting the base terminals with a thin piece of paper. SHUNT BOX SYSTEM FOR SERIES INCADESCENT LAMPS Shortly after the commercial development of alternating current.
THE SHUNT BOX SYSTEM FOR SERIES INCANDESCENT LAMPS Soon after the commercial development of the alternating current
When the lamp burned out, the full 1200 volts were pressed across this piece of paper, puncturing it and thus shorting out the base connections. Should one or more lamps fail on a circuit, the increase in current above the normal 3 amperes was prevented by an adjustable resistor, or by an additional number of lamps that could be turned on one by one, connected to each circuit and placed in the power supply installed. station under operator control.
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 65 THE ENCLOSED ARC LAMP
Certain salts saturated in carbon produced a brilliantly glowing flame in the course of the arc, which greatly increased the efficiency of the lamp. By condensing the smoke from the arc in a cooling chamber, it was practical to close the arc of the flame, thus increasing the life of the carbon.
THE FLAME ARC LAMP
The reason is that the instantaneous varying values of AC current and pressure, if multiplied and averaged over the entire AC cycle, do not equal the average amps (measured with an ammeter) multiplied by the average voltage (measured with a voltmeter). That is, the maximum value of the current flowing (amps) does not occur at the same time as the maximum pressure. voltage) is on the circuit.
68 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 ciency, such arcs on account of their color being used only to a limited
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 69 THE CONSTANT CURRENT TRANSFORMER FOR SERIES CIRCUITS
ENCLOSED SERIES ALTERNATING CURRENT ARC LAMPS
70 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76
SERIES INCANDESCENT LAMPS ON CONSTANT CURRENT TRANSFORMERS
THE NERNST LAMP
72 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 an iron wire mounted in a bulb filled with hydrogen gas and was called
THE COOPER-HEWITT LAMP
This lamp is particularly useful in photography due to the high actinic value of its light. This is achieved by two terminals at one end of the tube which are connected to choke coils.
74 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76
THE LUMINOUS OR MAGNETITE ARC LAMP
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 75 (a variety of iron ore) and other substances packed tightly in an
76 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 electrode and decreases in brilliancy and volume as it nears the posi-
increases when a magnet, in shunt with the arc, increases sufficiently when a magnet, in shunt with the arc, is energized enough to close the contacts in the starting magnet circuit, attracting the electrode and starting again.
MERCURY ARC RECTIFIER FOR MAGNETITE ARC LAMPS
It then goes to the pool of mercury through a reactance and through a series circuit. Thus a pulsating direct current flows through this series circuit, the magnetic action of the reactance coil causing the current pulses to overlap, preventing the mercury arc from extinguishing.
INCANDESCENT LAMP DEVELOPMENTS, 1894-I904
2 HISTORY OF ELI-XTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 79 The dry battery is made in small units of 2, 3 and 5 cells, so The dry battery is made in small units of 2, 3 and 5 cells, so that lamps of about -| to i candle power was made for 2h, 33 and (4 volts, for portable flashlights. It consisted of a tube about 1} i inches in diameter and of up to 200 feet in length, in which air at about one thousandth part of atmospheric pressure was made by a very high voltage alternating current.
THE MOORE TUBE LIGHT
The air had to be maintained within one ten-thousandth of atmospheric pressure above and one thousandth below normal, and as the rarer air in the tube chemically combined with the carbon electrodes, means of maintenance had to be devised. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 8l of air in the tube at this slight pressure as well as within the narrow.
82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 THE OSMIUM LAMP
THE GEM LAMP
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 83 experiments, he heated some carbon filaments and found that the high
They were also made but these were soon replaced by the tungsten filament lamp which was also made but these were soon replaced by the tungsten filament lamp which appeared in 1907.
THE TANTALUM LAMP
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 85 INVENTION OF THE TUNGSTEN LAMP
86 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. ']6
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 8/
DRAWN TUNGSTEN WIRE
88 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 automobile headlight lamp was among the first of these, which in 19 12
THE QUARTZ MERCURY VAPOR ARC LAMP
Quartz is very difficult to work with, so the cost of a quartz pipe is very high. The ordinary bunsen gas flame is used with glass, but quartz will soften only in an oxy-hydrogen or oxy-acetylene flame.
THE GAS-FILLED TUNGSTEN LAMP
From the foregoing it will appear that the efficiency of these lamps largely depends on the diameter of the filament. The simplicity of the incandescent lamp, its purity, low initial cost, low maintenance costs and high efficiency of the tungsten filament have been the main reasons for its popularity.
TYPES AND SIZES OF TUNGSTEN LAMPS NOW MADE
2 SCHROEDER'S HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 9Considerations, which also apply to vacuum lamps, affecting the considerations, which also apply to vacuum lamps, affecting efficiency. The looo-watt lamp for the iio-volt circuit is now made for nearly 20^ lumensper watt; 50 watt bulb just over 10 1-p-w.
92 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, 76
NO. 2 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHROEDER 93 STANDARD VOLTAGES
COST OF INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC LIGHT
94 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 reduced but slightly, but the efficiency of the tungsten lamp has
STATISTICS REGARDING THE PRESENT DEMAND FOR LAMPS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
