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History of electric light

Chapter 51: THE GEM LAMP
By Henry Schroeder
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Engineering & TechnologyHistory - Modern (1750+)

About This Book

A chronological, technical survey of electric lighting traces developments from early experiments with friction machines, Leyden jars and voltaic piles through advances in batteries, electromagnetic discoveries and the invention of the dynamo. It follows the parallel evolution of arc and incandescent illumination, outlining experimental filament and arc-control methods and the move to commercial installations and distribution schemes such as series, multiple and three‑wire systems. Later sections review later lamp technologies—Nernst, mercury‑vapor, gas‑filled and tungsten types—together with transformers, rectifiers, standardized voltages and sockets. The book is illustrated and includes a chronology, cost and usage statistics, and a selected bibliography.

THE GEM LAMP

Dr. Willis R. Whitney, of Schenectady, N. Y., had invented an electrical resistance furnace. This consisted of a hollow carbon tube, packed in sand, through which a very heavy current could be passed. This heated the tube to a very high temperature, the sand preventing the tube from oxidizing, so that whatever was put inside the tube could be heated to a very high heat. Among his various experiments, he heated some carbon filaments and found that the high temperature changed their resistance “characteristic” from negative to positive. The ordinary carbon filament has a resistance when hot that is less than when it is cold, which was reversed after heating it to the high temperature Dr. Whitney was able to obtain. These filaments were made into lamps for 110-volt service and it was found that they could be operated at an efficiency of 4 lumens per watt. The lamps also blackened less than the regular carbon lamp throughout their life.

Gem Lamp, 1905.

This incandescent lamp had a graphitized carbon filament obtained by the heat of an electric furnace, so that it could be operated at 25 per cent higher efficiency than the regular carbon lamp. This lamp is in the exhibit of Edison lamps in the Smithsonian Institution.

This lamp was put on the market in 1905 and was called the Gem or metallized carbon filament lamp as such a carbon filament had a resistance characteristic similar to metals. At first it had two single hair pin filaments in series which in 1909 were changed to a single loop filament like the carbon lamp.

In 1905 the rating of incandescent lamps was changed from a candlepower to a wattage basis. The ordinary 16-candlepower carbon lamp consumed 50 watts and was so rated. The 50-watt Gem lamp gave 20 candlepower, both candlepower ratings being their mean candlepower in a horizontal direction. The Gem lamp was made for 110-volt circuits in sizes from 40 to 250 watts. The 50-watt size was the most popular, many millions of which were made before the lamp disappeared from use in 1918. The lamp was not quite as strong as the carbon lamp. Some Gem lamps for series circuits were also made, but these were soon superseded by the tungsten-filament lamp which appeared in 1907.