Flip a switch and things no longer seem so scary.
Seems like magic, doesn’t it?
Only it’s not! But how does it all even happen?
Well, after the discovery of electricity, scientists discovered that if sufficient current is passed through a thin metal (usually tungsten) wire-coil, it begins to glow as the metal atoms release photon (light) particles.
The problem? Because there’s oxygen in the air, the metal wire became far too hot and caught fire.
So who ultimately resolved the problem? Well, you probably remember his name from childhood.
However, did you know that British scientist Sir Joseph Swan resolved the problem at roughly the same time as Edison?
So, getting back to the point here, what did Edison and Swan really do?
To resolve the problem of overheating, the metal wire was encased in thin clear glass to prevent oxygen from going in and allowing light to go out.
While the light bulb completely transformed the world and became ubiquitous in every country over the following decades, there was still a little problem.
You see, more than 90 per cent of the energy used by a bulb is converted into heat energy, not light. That’s why it can get a bit hot around light bulbs.
Like other technologies, lighting also continued to advance with time.
Today, cousins of the incandescent light bulb include fluorescent light bulbs/tube lights, halogen lights, LED lights and others.
Of these, Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs), and Light Emitting Diodes (LED) consume the least amount of energy and are the most efficient.
Also, do you often hear or use the term energy savers? Well, they’re CFLs!
These ones:
