All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

23o All About Inventions was awarded to Sir Joseph Swan for “his invention of the incandescent electric lamp and various improve- ments in the practical applications of electricity.” Thus was honour satisfied and a British claim to an epoch-marking invention absolutely vindicated. The carbon incandescent electric lamp revolu- tionised and popularised electric lighting, not only in Britain but in other parts of the world, to such an extent that gas illumination was threatened with extinction. The latter was revived by the intro- duction of the Welsbach incandescent mantle. The utilisation of rare earths for bringing about a more brilliant illumination with a lower consumption of gas caused electrical engineers and scientists to wonder whether they might not be impressed in the service of electric lighting to a similar end. There ensued another spirited race among our foremost electrical authorities in this new quest, and one in which, by the way, the British were not lagging, despite their generally believed lack of energy and enterprise. The rare earths were tested one after the other, but the quarry proved extraordinarily elusive. For years it seemed to be a hopeless in- vestigation. At last it was announced that a new filament had been devised—one which was made from the mineral tungsten. The first lamp of this type was given the distinctive name of “ tantalum,” after the metal which was used for the fabrication of the filament. The metallic filament lamp, as it became generally described, imparted a revived impetus to electric • lighting. What the Welsbach incandescent mantle had done for the pockets of the consumer of gas