The Electric Light

Welcome
to the incredible world of the electric light!

When most people think of early electric
light they think of Thomas Edison, however the story of the electric
light is much deeper and involves many interesting people
in many nations working with varied technologies and materials.

Some will say no technology has changed humanity more than the electric
light. Due to the importance of this area of engineering
we offer a full course of web pages, videos, and educational
tools to communicate to you the world of of the electric light
and the engineers and inventors who made it possible. Let’s
start exploring!

For
a text only version for the visually impaired go HERE.

We have two sets of pages on the 12 types of electric lamps:

Full
Lighting Pages:
Lots of detailed
information, timelines, names, etc.
Use the motion menu below to choose the light you want to start with.

Tour
EL:
5 min videos
on each light type, followed by a 5 question quiz for each lamp
type.
Linear tour with test for students.

Each light has it’s own
page and will cover:

How it Works

Use the introduction
video, graphic diagrams and written descriptions. You may need
to look up some information from physics to fully understand.
We do not provide in-depth physics lessons with this site. With
a general physics and chemistry background you should be able
to have a good basic understanding of each form of light.

Engineers
and Inventors

Read about the variety of inventors
from many nations who helped develop the forms of electric light.
In some cases the first inventor is not clear, we often list the
developers who created the first commercial product, they refined
and finished the invention for the consumer (us). This site is
flexible and will make adjustments if new information on developers
is found.

Steps
in development

Connected with innovators is each
step in development. It is important to understand how we arrived
where we are today in the technology. It is often an exciting
story as inventors and engineers fought to keep their jobs and
companies alive by trying to find the next big innovation. Some
were smart and lucky and stumbled onto solutions, others used
brute force and endless, tiring research for decades. From rags
to riches, and back to rags again the stories of men and women
devoted to their love of exploration via invention plays out before
you.

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