Incandescent Light Bulbs

Incandescent Light bulbs came to us as a boon especially when there was no way to illuminate our space during nights. Only candles and oil-lamps were our companions to grapple in the dark. From that perspective, it can be called as one of the most important discoveries in the history of mankind.

Construction

Incandescent light bulbs are made of filament mainly of tungsten and glass envelope. The base is made of two conductors which connect to filament to pass electrical current. An inert gas is used to fill up the bulb to prevent any oxidation of the filament.

Filament

Filament is considered to be a chief component or heart of any incandescent light bulb. Since its invention, a lot of effort has gone into its making and further development. Initially it started with carbonized paper filament or charcoal filament. Thomas Edison came out with a carbon filament, which lasted for forty hours. He continued to experiment with various materials and made filament out of bamboo, which lasted for more than 1200 hours. A few years later, the General Electric Company came out with tungsten filaments. Though it was costly; it outlasted all other types of filaments.

Bulb Components

The Incandescent light bulbs have components like stem, contact wire, cap, support wire, Tungsten filament, insulation, Electrical contact.

Electrical contacts are arranged in many ways. It may have a screw base or a bayonet base. Some lamps have electrical contacts at either end. Automotive and special purpose lamps have screw terminals for electrical connection.

Phasing out of Incandescent Bulb

Fluorescent light bulbs have fast started replacing incandescent bulbs. The reason being that they are more efficient compared to incandescent bulbs. A typical fluorescent bulb is 4-5 times more efficient as 12 to 15-watt fluorescent bulb emits same amount of light as 60-watt incandescent bulb.

Another feature of fluorescent bulb outsmarting incandescent bulb is the operating life period. Fluorescent light bulbs are found to last 10 times more in comparison to incandescent bulbs. Though fluorescent bulb is 4-5 times costly than incandescent bulb for matching luminance output, it is still found to be more economical by virtue of their less electricity consumption and longer life. In a bid to reduce green house gas emissions, many countries like Ireland, Switzerland, Cuba and many more has either banned the sale of incandescent bulbs or they are in the process of phasing out it.

The author is based at Ahmedabad, India. Though, professionally he is an engineer and management expert, yet he likes writing on variety of subjects such as education, health, travel, medical, philosophy, logic etc.... to name just a few. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nikhil_B_Shah