Research on Electric Incandescent Lamps in General Electric Company

General Electric Company improved the carbon filament, increasing its average service life from 100 hours to more than 500. In view of the emerging competition, the company needed more revolutionary technologies. A new filament material was needed that would glow brighter, last longer and be more durable. Scientific research by company employees W. Coolidge, I. Langmuir, E. Adams, L. Tonks and others allowed GE not only to regain its lost positions in the electric lamp market, but also to lay the foundations for the technology of manufacturing filaments for radio tubes of its own production. The following are considered: the invention of a method for producing plastic tungsten, the results obtained in I. Langmuir's doctoral dissertation, research into gas-filled incandescent lamps, W. Coolidge\u2019s diode, as well as his reasoning about fundamental science and Russian scientists.