Carbon filament lamp
date: label: date made
content: ca 1898
name: label: associated person
content: Edison, Thomas Alva
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Commercial carbon lamp. Brass medium-screw base with insulator retainer, porcelain insulator. Single-arch carbon filament with crimp & paste connectors, 2-piece leads. Tipped, pear-shaped envelope. Mather press? No extant markings. Donor’s card reads: “U [i.e. single arch] filament carbon lamp, squirted filament type, dates from 1888 to 1894, when General Electric Company adopted this type of filament. Cotton fiber was dissolved in hot zinc chloride. The soft mass of material was then squirted through a die, falling into alcohol which hardened it. Washed several times in water to remove the zinc chloride, the thread was wound on drums and dried. The result was an evenly wound strong filament material that could be cut to any length before carbonizing. Squirted filaments made this way ... were used in practically all carbon lamps made in the US in 1894 and thereafter.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Paul G. Watson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.325074
label: catalog number
content: 325074
label: accession number
content: 252994
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Light Bulb
label: Object Name
content: incandescent lamp
label: Other Terms
content: Light Bulb; Lighting Devices; Horseshoe; Carbon
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 3/4 in x 2 1/2 in; 14.605 cm x 6.35 cm