A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that produces visible light by fluorescence: an electric current excites mercury vapor to emit ultraviolet light, which in turn makes a phosphor coating on the inside of the tube glow, converting electrical energy into visible light far more efficiently than an incandescent bulb, at roughly 50 to 100 lumens per watt against an incandescent bulb's 16. A team led by George E. Inman at General Electric's Nela Park laboratory in Ohio built a working prototype in 1934, drawing on decades of earlier research by numerous scientists including Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and European researchers into gas-discharge lighting. General Electric began commercial sales of fluorescent lumiline lamps in four tube sizes in 1938, and the company's control of the key patents helped fluorescent lighting spread quickly through offices, factories and homes over the following decades.
Facts
Patent or First-Use DateOnly the month and year of the patent award are given by the source (December 1939); the exact day is not stated. This is the Meyer, Spanner and Germer metal-vapor-lamp patent application that General Electric acquired and that was awarded in the United States in December 1939, distinct from Albert Hull's earlier electrode patent (filed 1927, issued 1931) and Peter Cooper Hewitt's 1901 mercury-vapor lamp patent, per the same source. YearRecords the year commercial sales of fluorescent lumiline lamps began (four tube sizes put on the market), not the earlier non-commercialized patents (Hewitt 1901, Edison 1907) or the later December 1939 patent award, per the same source. SignificanceBy 1951 more light was produced in the United States by fluorescent lamps than by incandescent lamps. 1 Connections
Associated With
Invented By
Nikola Tesla, Engineers Named among the scientists whose decades of earlier research into gas-discharge lighting the General Electric team led by George E. Inman drew on when it built the first working fluorescent lamp prototype in 1934.
Thomas Edison, Engineers Named among the scientists whose decades of earlier research into gas-discharge lighting the General Electric team led by George E. Inman drew on when it built the first working fluorescent lamp prototype in 1934.
Sources
1. Fluorescent Lamp (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationCommercialization of fluorescent lamps section, sales sentence
Sales of "fluorescent lumiline lamps" commenced in 1938 when four different sizes of tubes were put on the market.
Commercialization of fluorescent lamps section, adoption sentence
By 1951 more light was produced in the United States by fluorescent lamps than by incandescent lamps.
Commercialization of fluorescent lamps section, GE patent award sentence
The patent was duly awarded in December 1939.
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