Talk:Lamp (electrical component)

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Contents

[edit] Move

The recent move of this page from lamp to light bulb had created a bit of a problem. While "lamp" is indeed a technical name for a "light bulb", the former is a broader term than the latter. "Lamps" in the technical sense include incandescent, fluorescent, gas discharge, and LED modules. Only the first of these is really correctly described as a "light bulb", and there is already an article on that: Incandescent light bulb. I have therefore moved the article to Lamp (electrical component), which I think better describes the contents. I have adjusted the intro to suit the new name and role, and to reduce duplication with Incandescent light bulb.--Srleffler 06:26, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Errors

Halogen lamps do not produce a colour temperature anywhere near that of sunlight. Halogens are typ 3000K, daylight is over twice that. The non-linear response of the eye can fool viewers in this respect.

The famous indandescent lamp of the 1800s was the carbon lamp, NOT the metal filament lamp we know today. Today's lamp didnt show up until much later. (there were also various other indandescent lamps long ago)

High halogen capsule temp is not caused by filament temp, but rather by small surface area to power ratio.

"which is sealed behind an additional layer of glass."

sometimes, sometimes not. Lots of halogen lamps & fittings lack this safety guard. Tabby 17:16, 9 May 2007 (UTC)


Does anyone know if this diff is correct? Do halogen lamps work at 200°C or 2000°C? Jediknil (talk) 01:53, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Efficiency figures

Have removed several of these %age figures, since they are unrepresentative of real life lighting. I don't know where the figures came from, perhaps they represent the absolute edge of technological possibility, but they are most optimistic when describing domestic and commercial lighting. Tabby (talk) 12:13, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How

maybe we should explain how lightbulbs work? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.6.125.46 (talk) 09:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A couple comments

  1. In plain English, a lamp is the thing with a cord that you plug into the wall outlet, a base to sit on the floor/desk/table, a switch, and a place to screw in the light bulb. This article is about light bulbs, not lamps. I know user manuals and such call light bulb "lamps", but that doesn't mean you should. Ditch the stupid jargon.
  2. I'm trying to find out what I need to do to get a lamp that will work with normal lightbulbs instead of needing the ones with the long neck. It says "type A" on the box. What does that mean? I should be able to look it up.

--dsws (talk) 23:35, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I found a brief description of types in the incandescent bulb article. It's inadequate. It should be expanded, and made into its own article or included in the light bulb article, because it's not at all specific to incandescent. Unfortunately, I'm completely unqualified to do that. --dsws (talk) 00:17, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

About point 1: the naming of these articles is not so easy. Lamp (electrical component) was a compromise between several conflicting goals. It is clear and unambiguous. The thing with a cord is a lamp (fixture) or light fixture. Lamp takes you to a disambiguation page that lists all the possible articles that term could apply to.
The difficulty is that there was a need for an article covering "lamps" in general, and not all types can be accurately described as a "light bulb". "Lamp" is the only term that covers all the types.
Sorry the info on shapes and types was inadequate for your needs. Someone will edit it eventually. It probably does belong in the incandescent light bulb article, because those shape categories are particular to that type of bulb. The only other types I know of that use them are halogen lamps and compact fluorescent lamps, and then only for special bulbs designed to mimic the shape of an incandescent bulb. The more typical lamps of these types have their own distinct shapes.--Srleffler (talk) 05:19, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A Brief History

Whilst interesting, the closing sentence: "Therefore, the electric light bulb was named “American”." in the context of this section, could appear to be somewhat biased and even a little anti-American. This section tells the story (albeit extremely briefly) of the invention of the light bulb in Canada, then the sale of part of the rights to the US Patent, but I've never heard of the light bulb being called 'the American light bulb.' Would this mean I only have English light bulbs in my home, as I live and buy my bulbs in England? I think not! lol. If no-one has an objection, I will pop back in 24 hours and remove the sentence if this is ok with everyone concerned. I could be wrong of course, but maybe there's a better way to close this section; it just seems a little subjective/POV. Daniel-James 03:00, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Actually, most of the paragraph feels subjective and non-encyclopedic (citations needed, in particular); moreover IMHO such information doesn't really belong in this article, but should probably be added into the "Incandescent light bulb" article instead (which does already mention Woodward and Evans a bit). Jediknil (talk) 06:18, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I couldn't agree more. I have incorporated the information about where they worked and their filing of a US Patent into the incandescant light bulb article, providing a full explanation on that article's talk page. With that done, I will remove the text from the brief history section and place a link there to the History of the Light Bulb section.

I'm an occasional and very inexperienced Wiki user, so please forgive me if I've trodden roughshod over any Wiki guidelines! Daniel-James 01:51, 23 March 2008 (UTC)