Fluorescent lamp
Lámpara fluorescente
- Date
- 1926-1938 · confidence medium
- Place
- East Cleveland, Ohio, United States
- Credited to
- Edmund Germer, Friedrich Meyer and Hans Spanner; George Inman (General Electric)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A low-pressure mercury-vapour tube whose phosphor-coated walls convert ultraviolet into visible light far more efficiently than a bulb. GE and Westinghouse brought it to market in 1938-39.
Germer, Meyer and Spanner patented a fluorescent-coated discharge lamp in Berlin in 1926; GE bought the rights and its team under Inman made it commercial in 1938. Becquerel (1857) and others had shown the principle.
What it led to
- lighting for offices, factories and shops in the 20th century
- compact fluorescent lamps (1980)
- effects on grid demand and mercury recycling