the light bulb

By devonstout

  • arc lamp

    arc lamp
    Humphry Davy demonstrated the first incandescent light to the Royal Institute in Great Britain, using a bank of batteries and two charcoal rods. Arc lamps provided many cities with their first electric streetlights.

  • lighting in a tube

    lighting in a tube
    In the 19th century, two Germans discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it. Called Geissler tubes, they became the basis of many lighting technologies including fluorescent lights. Pictured here are color drawings of early Geissler tubes.