Reading by candlelight may seem romantic <a title="nike free flyknit sale" href="http://www.freeflyknituk.me.uk/">nike free flyknit sale</a> , but it s tough on the eyes, and an errant breeze leaves everyone in the dark. Imagine having to light up an oil soaked torch for a little extra, portable light outside. Thank goodness we have the light bulb, and thank goodness we ve been getting better at making it. From glowing strips of charcoal to light emitting diodes (LEDs), we ve come a long way. First Light: The Dim Beginning It was a dark and stormy well, it was certainly a dark night, but that would soon change. The year was 1809, and an English scientist by the name of Humphry Davy was about to make the world a brighter place. He had come up with a rudimentary battery to which he attached some wires. In between these wires he affixed two pieces of charcoal, which we can only assume surprised him when they began to glow. Thus the light bulb was conceived <a title="nike free flyknit uk" href="http://www.freeflyknituk.me.uk/">nike free flyknit uk</a> , or at least electric arc, the phenomenon that made the charcoal glow for Davy, was discovered. It wasn t until 1820 that Warren De la Rue attempted to produce the first incandescent light bulb. Enclosing a platinum coil inside of an evacuated tube, he ran a current through and there was light. The longevity had improved greatly from Davy s carbon strips, but the cost of platinum was prohibitive. Success! A Little More Light on the Subject With so many scientists around the globe working to produce a practical light bulb, it was only a matter of time before somebody got it right. In 1879, this happened twice. Thomas Alva Edison and Wilson Swan had independent breakthroughs. Both designs were based on a carbon fiber filament, which was derived from cotton. Though a huge step in the right direction, this bulb lasted a scant 13.5 hours. 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Much like the French forerunner <a title="nike free 3.0 v5 womens black" href="http://www.freeflyknituk.me.uk/cheap-nike-free-3-0-sale/nike-free-3-0-v5... free 3.0 v5 womens black</a> , they did not have much success. There were, of course, many others attempting to produce practical vapor lamps, but they too failed. Without all of their work, though, Peter Cooper Hewitt wouldn t have been able to produce the world s first mercury vapor lamp in 1901. This lamp was the predecessor to the fluorescent lights we have today, which use electricity to excite mercury vapor, creating luminescence. Beginning to See the Light: A Brighter Future Emerges Electroluminescence, discovered by Englishman Henry J. Round in 1907 <a title="nike free 3.0 v2 womens" href="http://www.freeflyknituk.me.uk/cheap-nike-free-3-0-sale/nike-free-3-0-v2... free 3.0 v2 womens</a> , doesn t just sound cool; it s the guiding principle behind light emitting diodes (LEDs). The first LED was created independently of Henry J. Round by a Russian scientist named Oleg Vladimirovich Losev in the mid 1920s. No practical use came about for decades, though. In 1955, Rubin Braunstein observed that simple diodes using gallium antimonide (GaSb), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and silicon germanium (SiGe) all produced infrared light. It was in 1961 that the first infrared LED was patented by Bob Biard and Gary Pittman; it used GaAs. All of this intensely scientific research culminated in the 1962 with Nick Holonyak Jr. inventing the first visible spectrum LED. He earned the title, Father of the Light Emitting Diode, for this one. It wasn t until 1976 that a high brightness, high efficiency LED was invented by T.P. Pearsall. 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