[LINK] GE Announces Advancement in Incandescent Technology

Ivan Trundle ivan at itrundle.com
Tue Feb 27 20:08:17 AEDT 2007


Frank O'Connor wrote:
> Amazing how fortuitous these 'Great Leaps Forward' in design are,  
> isn't it?
>
> I mean ... here we have a press item about a couple of governments  
> seeking to mandate more energy efficient lighting alternatives, and  
> (insert shock and amazed disbelief here) a coincidence par  
> excellence ... a major manufacturer of the offending item  
> (incandescent bulbs) suddenly announces that they have a much more  
> energy efficient alternative in the works.

...and ready to roll in 3 years time. Now when was Mr Turnbull going  
to bring in that new legislation? Funny, that.

But since when was Edison credited with the invention of the light  
bulb? And since when is it only 125 years old?

Whatever happened to Sir Humphry Davy's invention of the platinum  
filament back in 1801, or later, Janes Lindsay (demonstrated a  
constant electric light in Dundee in 1835). Okay, perhaps not in a  
vacuum, but that was first demonstrated by Warren de la Rue in 1840.  
Then came Frederick de Moleyns (who was granted the first patent 40  
years before Edison), and John Wellington Starr (who was also granted  
a patent a few years later), then Robert Houdin, or Alexander  
Lodygin, or Heinrich Göbel, or Joseph Swan, or Henry Woodward and  
Mathew Evans. There are at least 20 'prior art' claims to Edison's  
grab at fame and fortune (he needed money via grants to develop 'his'  
patent).

All Edison did was to buy the US and Canadian patents, in 1875 (or  
thereabouts).

Oh, and in my reading of the subject, I've discovered that the light  
output from compact fluorescent bulbs is severely diminished at  
temperatures approaching zero (C) to the point that many will not  
light at all, and that constant turning on and off reduces their  
lifespan to something much worse than that of incandescents.

iT

>
> At 9:15 AM +1100 27/2/07, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>> <snip>
>> "GE Consumer & Industrial's Lighting division, a world leader in  
>> the development of energy-efficient lighting products, today  
>> announced advancements to the light bulb invented by GE's founder  
>> Thomas Edison that potentially will elevate the energy efficiency  
>> of this 125-year-old technology to levels comparable to compact  
>> fluorescent lamps (CFL), delivering significant environmental  
>> benefits. Over the next several years, these advancements will  
>> lead to the introduction of high-efficiency incandescent lamps  
>> that provide the same high light quality, brightness and color as  
>> current incandescent lamps while saving energy and decreasing  
>> greenhouse gas emissions."





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