From primitive techniques to LEDs, man has always pushed the limits of lighting by perfecting his inventions over the centuries. Thus, from mastering fire, we are now able to master electricity !
In prehistoric times, man made one of his first discoveries by rubbing a flint against an iron-rich stone: Fire! The first means of artificial lighting, it was not until 31,500 BC that the first torches appeared! Until then, people had to make do with sunlight during the day and a static fireplace after dark.
As far as the torch is concerned, it is very often pine that is chosen in order to allow a good combustion, reputed not to burn too quickly, man used these pine torches to light up their caves and to produce the coal necessary for their frescoes.
Later, the oil lamp appeared, the first ones were found more than 15,000 years ago. They consisted of a reservoir containing vegetable oils and were equipped with a spout with a flammable wick.
From the Middle Ages onwards, the beeswax candle appeared, which was more expensive than the candle that appeared a few centuries earlier. The advantages of the candle are a more pleasant smell and less smoke.
Let’s take a step back in time! Here we are in 1744 with the reverberating lantern! The French engineer Dominique – François Bourgeois designed his invention with a combustion system using a cotton wick dipped in oil. In addition to burning for a long time, this lantern has mirrors to reflect the light.
The 19th century is now the destination of gas lighting, which appeared in 1813. Invented by the Gas Light and Coke Company, the first lighting was made on Westminster Bridge. Three years later, it was the streets of Paris that benefited from it from 1816!
Then came 1835 with James Bowman Lindsay and his invention of the “incandescent lamp” marking the advent of electricity! This was followed by Joseph Swan in 1860 and Thomas Edison in 1879. A revolution in the lighting sector since it is a bulb in which electric current circulates, thus producing light!
1910 saw the introduction of the neon tube, invented by a Frenchman, Georges Claude, which was an electric lamp consisting of a tube filled with neon with two electrodes at its ends.
The halogen lamp appeared in 1959 thanks to engineers Edward G. Zubler and Frederick Mosby. The principle is based on a 1933 patent describing the redeposition of tungsten on the filament and the use of iodine which is a halogen gas.
And finally 1993 saw the arrival of the LED lamp, invented by the Japanese Shuji Nakamura and Takashi Mukai. It is from the blue LED that the white LED appeared producing LED lighting.