Experimental integral compact fluorescent lamp
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1978
label: date made
content: ca. 1978
name: label: maker
content: General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
notes: label: Description
content: As energy prices soared in the 1970s, lamp makers focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. A great deal of effort by many researchers went into designing small fluorescent lamps that might replace a regular incandescent lamp. These efforts led to modern compact fluorescent lamps that use bent or connected tubes, but many other designs were tried. This experimental "partition lamp" from 1978 shows one such design.
label: Description
content: Soon after the 1939 introduction of linear fluorescent lamps, inventors began receiving patents for smaller lamps. But they found that the small designs suffered from low energy efficiency and a short life-span. Further research revealed that energy efficiency in fluorescent lamps depends in part on the distance the electric current travels between the two electrodes, called the arc path. A long arc path is more efficient than a short arc path. That's why fluorescent tubes in stores and factories are usually 8 feet (almost 3 meters) long.
label: Description
content: Inventors in the 1970s tried many ways of putting a long arc path into a small lamp. In this case there are thin glass walls inside the lamp, dividing it into four chambers. Each chamber is connected in such a way that the electric current travels the length of the lamp four times when moving from one electrode to the other. So the arc path is actually four times longer than the lamp itself, raising the energy efficiency of the lamp. This unit was made by General Electric for experiments on the concept, though other makers were also working on partition lamps.
label: Description
content: While the partition design works, it proved to be expensive to manufacture and most lamp makers decided to use thin tubes that could be easily bent and folded while being made.
label: Description
content: Lamp characteristics: No base. Two stem assemblies each have tungsten electrodes in a CCC-6 configuration with emitter. Welded connectors, 3-piece leads with lower leads made of stranded wire. Bottom-tipped, T-shaped envelope with internal glass partition that separates the internal space into four connected chambers. Partition is made of two pieces of interlocked glass and is not sealed into the envelope. All glass is clear. No phosphors were used since the experimenter wanted to study the arc path.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New York, Schenectady
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Energy & Power
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
label: Exhibition
content: Lighting a Revolution
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: 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 General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1998.0050.16
label: accession number
content: 1998.0050
label: catalog number
content: 1998.0050.16
objectType: label: Object Name
content: discharge lamp
label: Object Name
content: fluorescent lamp
label: Other Terms
content: discharge lamp; Fluorescent
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mercury (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 3/4 in x 2 in; 22.225 cm x 5.08 cm