Experimental Sulphur-Selenium Lamp
date: label: Date made
content: 1997
name: label: maker
content: Fusion Lighting, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: In the mid-1990s Fusion Lighting began selling a microwave-powered lighting system. The small, spherical bulbs contained a small amount of the element sulfur that gave a large amount of good quality light when energized by microwaves. Company researchers began investigating other materials to learn more about their new light source and perhaps to discover another saleable product.
label: Description
content: The lamp is from one of those follow-on experiments and contains a mix of sulfur and another element, selenium. Both elements have related properties. Chemists refer to them as Group VI elements since they appear in the same column of the Periodic Table. Fusion researchers felt that these related elements might work well together in the new system. The company donated two other sulfur-selenium lamps from the same experiment that contain mixtures with differing ratios of the two elements.
label: Description
content: Lamp characteristics: A quartz stem with a notched metal sleeve near the bottom serves as the base. The notch locks the lamp into its fixture. The sphere has an argon gas filling with a tiny amount of Krypton-85 to help start the discharge. The orange material condensed on the inner wall is an equal mix of sulfur and selenium. The pattern of condensation indicates lamp was burned vertically. Tipless, G-shaped quartz envelope.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Maryland, Rockville
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
label: See more items in
content: Industry & Manufacturing
label: Exhibition
content: Lighting a Revolution
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Turner, B. P.; Ury, M. G.; Leng, Y.; Love, W.G.. Sulfur Lamps -- Progress In Their Development
label: Related Publication
content: Lighting A Revolution exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Fusion Lighting Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1996.0359.08
label: catalog number
content: 1996.0359.08
label: accession number
content: 1996.0359
objectType: label: Object Name
content: discharge lamp
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: sulfur / selenium (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: quartz (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 3/4 in x 1 1/2 in; 14.605 cm x 3.81 cm