Home Om543_681407_001

Reference URL

Add tags

Comment

Save to favorites

To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed the entire object, paste this HTML in website

To link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Working Model of Arc Lamp with Automatic Electrode Feeder

Om543_681407_001

Save page

1 of 2

View Description

View Image & Text

This page

All

Subset

Image
Text

Text Search...

Loading content ...

you wish to report:

Your comment:

Your Name:

Submit

Cancel

...

Title	Working Model of Arc Lamp with Automatic Electrode Feeder
Subject	Science and Technology Laboratories Electric lighting--Arc
Place	Euclid (Ohio) Cleveland (Ohio) Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
Description	Scientist and inventor Charles Francis Brush patented an arc lamp that could light large spaces, such as department stores and streets, in 1878. The Brush arc lamp was demonstrated on Cleveland's Public Square in 1879, and it was used around the world to replace gas street lamps. Sir Humphry Davy invented the first arc lamp in 1807 using a battery to produce an arc, or a sustained electric light. Various scientists and inventors worked on the arc lamp throughout the nineteenth century, but the lamps could not be used for practical purposes, since the carbon electrodes (materials that conduct electricity) were consumed as the lamp burned. Continuous adjustment was required to maintain the proper space between the electrodes and keep the lamp burning. The Brush arc lamp, however, incorporated an electro-mechanical device that automatically adjusted the position of the electrodes as they were consumed. This item is a laboratory model or demonstration device of Brush's arc lamp, as opposed to a functional street lamp. The model is 50" high by 25" wide by 5" deep (127 cm x 63.5 cm x 12.7 cm) and weighs 36.5 pounds (16.5 kg). It consists of a fixed lower electrode and an upper electrode clamped to the end of a rod. The rod is held by a latch mechanism near the top of the assembly. The current supplying the arc passes through a pair of electro-magnetic coils. As the electrodes are consumed, the current is interrupted, causing the electro-magnetic coils to release the latch mechanism. This allows the upper electrode to move downward, which restores the proper space between the electrodes. Charles Francis Brush was born in Euclid, Ohio in 1849. He became interested in physics and chemistry as a student at Cleveland High School and earned his mining engineering degree from the University of Michigan in 1869. He returned to Cleveland and continued his experiments with the open coil-type dynamo and the arc light that made him famous around the world.
Date of Original	1878 circa
Source	Historical object(s) or artifact(s) 89-11-2
Submitting Institution	South Euclid Historical Society
Rights	For rights and reproduction requests, go to the Ohio Historical Society's Audiovisual and Graphic Reproduction Services page at http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/photodup.html
Type	StillImage
Format	picture; objects

Title	Om543_681407_001
Rights	For rights and reproduction requests, go to the Ohio Historical Society's Audiovisual and Graphic Reproduction Services page at http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/photodup.html; Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests or more information, go to http://www.ohiohistory.org/images/information
File Name	Om543_681407_001.tif
Image Height	3000
Image Width	1929
File Size	1059.19 KB

Find results with:

Searching collections:

Home Om543_681407_001

Working Model of Arc Lamp with Automatic Electrode Feeder

Object Description

Description

Tags

Comments

Working Model of Arc Lamp with Automatic Electrode Feeder

Working Model of Arc Lamp with Automatic Electrode Feeder

	All
	Pages Enter page numbers or page ranges separated by commas. For example: 1,3,5-12