Editing Carbon button lamp

{{Short description|Single-electrode incandescent lamp}}{{More citations needed|date=June 2024}}

The '''carbon button lamp''' is a single-[[electrode]] [[incandescent lamp]] invented by [[Nikola Tesla]] in the 1890s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Egely |first=George |date=2020 |title=Part 1: From Alchemy to Biological Transmutations |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=145025619&lang=en-gb&site=eds-live&scope=site |journal=Infinite Energy |volume=25 |issue=151–152 |pages=15–34 |via=EBSCOHost}}</ref> A [[carbon]] button lamp contains a small carbon sphere positioned in the center of an evacuated glass bulb. This type of lamp must be driven by high-frequency [[alternating current]], and depends on an [[electric arc]] or perhaps a [[vacuum arc]] to produce high [[electric current|current]] around the carbon electrode.  The carbon electrode is then heated to [[incandescence]] by collisions by ions, which constitute the electric current.  Tesla found that these lamps could be used as powerful sources of [[ionizing radiation]].

In February 1892, Tesla gave a lecture to the [[Institution of Electrical Engineers]], in which he described the carbon button lamp in detail. He also described several variants of the lamp, one of which uses a [[ruby]] drop in place of the carbon button.

Tesla went on to develop it as a near commercial lighting product.<ref name=":0" /> Engineer George Egely has argued that the carbon button lamp "could have been a serious competitor for the incandescent tungsten filament bulbs and the later 'neon tubes' of gas discharge devices.<ref name=":0" />

== See also ==
* [[List of light sources]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1892-02-03.htm Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency]  - Tesla's lecture to the Institute of Electrical Engineers

{{Artificial light sources}}

[[Category:Types of lamp]]


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