By the time the GEC Research Laboratories were established it had long been evident to leaders in the electrical industry, such as Hugo Hirst, that there was great potential in the use of electricity for lamps and lighting. Although gas was still used for many lighting purposes, the advantages of electricity gave scope for substituting it for gas. There had already been forty years of development of incandescent filament lamps, but there was still considerable room for advances. As yet there were only hints as to what still lay ahead, but it had become clear from the work of Coolidge and Langmuir at GE in America that the coiled tungsten filament in a gas-filled envelope was the incandescent lamp of the future.

Inspec keywords: lightning; electricity supply industry; filament lamps; photometry; tungsten; phosphors

Other keywords: GEC Research Laboratories; phosphors; electricity gave scope; gas filled envelope; photometry; incandescent filament lamps; coiled tungsten filament; electrical industry; lighting

Subjects: Photometry and radiometry