The Inventor of the Incandescent Electric Light

Abstract

IN the “Notes” of NATURE, vol. xxvii. p. 209, M. de Chagny is described as “the first electrician who attempted to manufacture incandescent lamps in vacuo about twenty years ago.” This invention and its successful practical application (irrespective of cost) was made by a young American, Mr. Starr, and patented by King in 1845. A short stick of gas-retort carbon was used, and the vacuum obtained by connecting one end of this with a wire sealed through the top of a barometer tube blown out at the upper part, and the other end with a wire dipping into the mercury. The tube was about thirty-six inches long, and thus the enlarged upper portion became a torrecellian vacuum when the tube was filled and inverted. I had a share of one eighth in the venture, assisted in making the apparatus and some of the experiments, and after the death of Mr. Starr all the apparatus was assigned to me. I showed this light (in the original lamp) publicly many times at the Midland Institute, Birmingham, and on two occasions in the Town Hall, all of them more than twenty years ago. The light was far more brilliant, and the carbon-stick more durable, than the flimsy threads of the incandescent lamps now in use. It was abandoned solely on account of the cost of supplying the power. As a steady, reliable, and beautiful light, its success was complete. In “A Contribution to the History of Electric Lighting,” published in the Journal of Science, November 5, 1879, and reprinted lately in my “Science in Short Chapters,” may be found further particulars concerning this invention and its inventor.