Artificial Light: Its Influence upon CivilizationLuckiesh, Matthew
History
Artificial Light: Its Influence upon Civilization
Luckiesh, Matthew
Electric lighting; Lighting -- History
The interior of the arc is of a violet color and the exterior is a
greenish yellow. The white-hot spot on the negative tip is generally
surrounded by a fringe of agitated globules which consist of tar and
other ingredients of carbons. Often material is deposited from the
positive crater upon the negative tip and these accretions may build up
a rounded tip. This deposit sometimes interferes with the proper
formation of the arc and also with the light from the arc. It is often
responsible for the hissing noise, although this hissing occurs with any
length of arc when the current is sufficiently increased. The hissing
seems to be due to the crater enlarging under excessive current until it
passes the confines of the cross-section of the carbon. It thus tends to
run up the side, where it comes in contact with oxygen of the air. In
this manner the carbon is directly burned instead of being vaporized, as
it is when the hot crater is small and is protected from the air by the
arc itself. The temperature of the positive crater is in the
neighborhood of 6000 deg. to 7000 deg.F. The brightness of the arc under
pressure is the greatest produced by artificial means and is very
intense. By putting the arc under high pressure, the brightness of the
sun may be attained. The temperature of the hottest spot on the negative
tip is about a thousand degrees below that of the positive.
No great demand arose for arc-lamps until the development of the Gramme
dynamo in 1870, which provided a practicable source of electric current.
In 1876 Jablochkov invented his famous "electric candle" consisting of
two rods of carbon placed side by side but separated by insulating
material. In this country Brush was the pioneer in the development of
open arc-lamps. In 1877 he invented an arc-lamp and an efficient form of
dynamo to supply the electrical energy. The first arc-lamps were
ordinary direct-current open arcs and the carbons were made from
high-grade coke, lampblack, and syrup. The upper positive carbon in
these lamps is consumed at a rate of one to two inches per hour.
Inasmuch as about 85 per cent. of the total light is emitted by the
upper (positive) carbon and most of this from the crater, the lower
carbon is made as small as possible in order not to obstruct any more
light than necessary. The positive carbon of the open arc is often cored
and the negative is a smaller one of solid carbon. This combination
operates quite satisfactorily, but sometimes solid carbons are used
outdoors. The voltage across the arc is about 50 volts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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