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Lighting technology: Time to change the bulb

Nature volume 459, pages 312–314 (2009)Cite this article

The incandescent light bulb is being phased out, but what will replace it? Stefano Tonzani investigates the technologies that are vying for our sockets.

The Centennial Light, which hangs in a fire station in Livermore, California, is the oldest working light bulb on Earth. The four-watt night-light was switched on in 1901 and has been shining almost non-stop ever since, consuming roughly 3,500 kilowatt-hours of energy in total. As the picture below shows, the bulb also looks surprisingly familiar: the technology of incandescent lights has changed very little over its lifetime. Inside the bulb is a filament ? carbon in this case, tungsten in today's models ? that is heated by the flow of electricity until it glows white and lights up the room. The design is simple, versatile and cheap, just as it was when Thomas Edison first made it a commercial success in the 1880s.

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  1. Stefano Tonzani
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Stefano Tonzani is an associate editor at Nature.

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Sandra Rosenthal website

DoE solid state lighting

UK government report on lighting

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Tonzani, S. Lighting technology: Time to change the bulb. Nature 459, 312–314 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459312a

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