Lightbulb Research Paper

“… Though Thomas Alva Edison is almost always credited with having invented the lightbulb, an earlier version was developed in England by Sir Joseph Wilson Swan. However, Edison was an important pioneer who went on to make the first successful electrical system.”(Collier 66). In 1878 Joseph Swan made a workable version of an electric light bulb, using a carbon filament. (Collier 66) An incandescent bulb consists of a filament, which today is made of a wire of tungsten, and Anchor wires, which hold the filament in place. Also a flare, Which has two red wires that run through the to the base of the bulb to the filament, and an exhaust tube as well, which is a space where air is sucked out of the bulb to create a vacuum. It would also include a glass bulb, which is a base to help screw light bulbs into lamps and light fixtures, and last lead wires which carry electricity to the bulb from a power plant. (Wallace). If there was a piece of metal in a lightbulb, and if energy was passed through it, it would become hot enough to glow and then melt. A solution to the problem of it burning is to surround the inside with a vacuum, as nothing can burn without oxygen. The
light, or light-emitting diode, emits light when activated and passes energy through a semiconductor to produce light. They also use phosphor, and everyday people are finding new materials to make it. (Vakil). An L.E.D. light draws heat from the power away from it with a heat sink, a passive device that absorbs the heat produced and dissipates it into the surrounding environment in order to keep L.E.D. lights from burning out. (Learn About LED Bulbs). An L.E.D. bulb gives about 100-110 lumens per watt. They last about 35,000-100,000 hours.(Vakil).
This research is relevant to my experiment because I am trying to determine which light bulb is a better choice overall. I think that if the lights are given the same amount of energy and are in the same place, then the L.E.D. lights will give more