Light up the World

The Incandescent Light bulb

As you may, or may not know, the light bulb was NOT invented by Thomas Edison. The first incandescent light was created in 1802 by Humphry Davy. He had what was considered the most powerful battery in the world at the time. He passed an electrical current through a strip of platinum which began to glow. 75 years later, Edison used a carbon based filament and began selling it commercially.

An incandescent bulb consists of a filament of tungsten wire housed in glass. As an electrical current is passed through the filament, the filament begins to heat up. This is due to the fact that the filament provides resistance to the current that is passed through it. Think of it as a sponge being lodged in a pipe. While water will still run through the pipe and out the other end, a good amount of it will be held up in the sponge. In the case of the light bulb, that extra energy that is held up produces heat.

Now lets take it a step further. The filament is considered a Black Body which is an object that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation that is supplied to it. At room temperature, Black Body objects emit mostly infrared light, which is light that cannot be seen with the naked eye. As a Black Body object begins to heat pass 100 degrees C, the object will start to emit visible light from red, orange, yellow, white, and eventually blue light before becoming ultraviolet.

After explaining all of that, here's why you wasted your time. Beginning January of this year, companies have stopped production of the incandescent light bulb in favor of the newer, more energy-efficient, and often more expensive fluorescent bulbs. Which will be the topic of our next post.

Please tell me what you think of the new blog. Tell me if everything was explained enough or if it was just confusing. Most importantly, let me know if anything was incorrect. Leave comments, ask questions, LEARN!