Incandescent Electric Lamps ¹

Abstract

THE closing months of 1906 and the opening months of 1907 are likely to be long remembered by electrical engineers, as a period of a remarkable recrudescence of interest in the subject of incandescent eleqtric lamps. for many years the familiar carbon filament lamp has been the only commercial incandescent electric lamp in spite of its threatened extinction by the invention of the Nernst lamp in 1897–1898. Tjpe feeling of uncertainty caused by this discovery was short-lived; after a wealth of prophecy on its probable effect on the industry it was soon found out that months, even years, of experiment were necessary to perfect the Nernst lamps commercially, and the drastic changes recommended to supply engineers were postponed for a time in consequence. Finally, the lamp, capable though it proved of taking a definite place in the art of electric lighting, was found to be hardly even a serious competitor of the carbon filament lamp.