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Fluorescent Lights in the Free Online Encyclopedia
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A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light. Unlike incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps always require a ballast to regulate the flow of power through the lamp. However, a fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful light more efficiently than an incandescent lamp; lower energy costs offsets the higher initial cost of the lamp. While larger fluorescent lamps have been mostly used in large commercial or institutional buildings, the compact fluorescent lamp is now being used as an energy-saving alternative to incandescent lamps in homes. Compared with incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps use less power for the same amount of light, generally last longer, but are bulkier, more complex, and more expensive than a comparable incandescent lamp.
Physical discoveries
The history of the fluorescent lamp begins with early research into electrical phenomena. By the beginning of the 18th century, experimenters had observed a radiant glow emanating from partially evacuated glass vessels through which an electrical current passed. Little more could be done with this phenomenon until 1856 when a German glassblower named Heinrich Geissler (1815–1879) created a mercury vacuum pump that evacuated a glass tube to an extent not previously possible. When an electrical current passed through a Geissler tube, a strong green glow on the walls of the tube at the cathode end could be observed. Because it produced some beautiful light effects, the Geissler tube was a popular source of amusement. More important, however, was its contribution to scientific research. One of the first scientists to experiment with a Geissler tube was Julius Plücker (1801–1868) who systematically described in 1858 the luminescent effects that occurred in a Geissler tube. He also made the important observation that the glow in the tube shifted position when in proximity to an electromagnetic field. Inquiries that began with the Geissler tube continued as even better vacuums were produced. The most famous was the evacuated tube used for scientific research by William Crookes (1832–1919). That tube was evacuated by the highly effective mercury vacuum pump created by Hermann Sprengel (1834–1906). Research conducted by Crookes and others ultimately led to the discovery of the electron in 1897 by J. J. Thomson (1856–1940). But the Crookes tube, as it came to be known, produced little light because the vacuum in it was too good and thus lacked the trace amounts of gas that are needed for electrically stimulated luminescence. Alexandre Edmond Becquerel observed in 1859 that certain substances gave off light when they were placed in a Geissler tube. He went on to apply thin coatings of luminescent materials to the surfaces of these tubes. Fluorescence occurred, but the tubes were very inefficient and had a short operating life. A few years earlier another scientist, George G. Stokes (1819–1903), had noted that ultraviolet light caused fluorspar to fluoresce, a property that would become critically important for the development of fluorescent lights many decades later.
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