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The incandescent light bulb was invented and continued to progress from the early 1800s. Prior to this, simple candles and oil lamps, along with other simple lighting was used in everyday life. The journey of the incandescent lamp began in 1809 when Humphrey Davy produced the very first arc lamp by inducing current between two charcoal strips utilizing a high powered battery. This was followed up through to the 1880s, with numerous incandescent light bulbs being produced by various groups and individuals. All had the same thought of creating a light bulb which contained an element having a high melting point, such as platinum, inside an evacuated chamber.

Numerous high melting point elements were used to attempt to create a practical, cost efficient incandescent lamp with a lengthy life. The theory was, the greater the temperature, the brighter the light. Therefore the higher the melting point of the material, the more effectively the lamp would work at high temperatures, resulting in the emission of a brighter ligh. The element would also have a smaller amount of gas particles to react with within an evacuated chamber resulting in a longer life span. Many people created light bulbs in this way, however the struggle was to produce one which lasted for significant periods of time. The first incandescent lamp which lasted a practical length of time was developed by Edison and Swan in 1879, which lasted about 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 which is lost and the quicker the filament degrades, the much less efficient the light bulb is. Edison used carbon filaments within his early incandescent light bulbs as this has the highest melting temperature, having said that it evaporates at a rapid rate, resulting in a shorter life span. The life span was increased by the filament being operated in a lower temperate, however the brightness of the lamp also decreased.

Within the early 1900s, the much more contemporary tungsten filament incandescent lightbulb was devised by William Coolidge and the General Electric Company. This is the light bulb we know nowadays used for indoor or outdoor lighting. This element really enhanced efficiency 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 quickly. Numerous inert gases like nitrogen had been added to the light bulbs which reduced the rate of evaporation to improve filament life, nevertheless, this also affected the temperature of the filament, resulting in a dimmer light. Creating a coil from the filament was confirmed to have success in maintaining a higher temperature, therefore having a brighter light. Coiled filaments are still used in incandescent lamps today.

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

The original fluorescent lamp was invented in the late 1890s. Since that time, numerous businesses and people have developed on this thought to create practical fluorescent lamps which were 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 in the 1970s, the style didn't go ahead, and was later copied by others in the mid 90s when is was sold commercially. Eco light bulbs had been introduced by large companies like Philips and Osram in the 80s, which included the first effective replacement for screw-in incandescent lamps with an integral ballast, and also the initial CFL to include an electronic ballast.

Original eco lamps often weredull and flickered as the technology were continuing to be developed. These days they truly are a new generation. They are incredibly efficient, saving as much as 80% of energy, extremely bright and have a really long life span, lasting about 8x longer than tradition incandescent lamps.

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