Edison light bulb

Edison light bulbs, also known as filament light bulbs and retroactively referred to as antique light bulbs or vintage light bulbs, are either carbon- or early tungsten-filament incandescent light bulbs, or modern bulbs that reproduce their appearance. Most of the bulbs in circulation are reproductions of the wound filament bulbs made popular by Edison Electric Light Company at the turn of the 20th century. They are easily identified by the long and complicated windings of their internal filaments, and by the very warm-yellow glow of the light they produce (many of the bulbs emit light at a color temperature of 2200–2400K).

History

Original carbon-filament bulb from Thomas Edison's shop in Menlo Park

Light bulbs with a carbon filament were first demonstrated by Edison in October 1879. These carbon filament bulbs, the first electric light bulbs, became available commercially that same year. In 1904 a tungsten filament was invented by Austro-Hungarians Alexander Just and Franjo Hanaman, and was more efficient and longer-lasting than the carbonized bamboo filament used previously. The introduction of a neutral gas to the glass envelope (or bulb) also helped to improve the lifespan and brightness of the bulb. To produce enough light, these lamps required the use of extremely long filaments, which remained so until the development of more efficiently wound tungsten filaments.

In the 1960s, US inventor Robert (Bob) Kyp patented a similar in appearance but flickering "electric flame" light bulb under the name Balafire as well as radiometers. His flicker bulb was used in a 7-Up commercial, and the company he ran since 1964, Kyp-Go, is currently the only US manufacturer of carbon-filament bulbs.

Resurgence

A glowing vintage light bulb of "ST" shape

In the 1980s, after watching a salvage operation, Bob Rosenzweig started the reproduction and selling of his faux-antique bulbs. These vintage-style light bulb reproductions were sold mostly to collectors and prop houses, and continued until the turn of the 21st century when new regulations banned low-efficiency lighting in many countries. However, while domestic lighting shifted toward more efficient compact fluorescent lamps and LED lights, demand for vintage bulbs likewise increased. But passed as "specialty lighting", Edison-style incandescent lamps are exempted from the ban in most places.

More contemporary "Edison light bulbs" are designed to replicate the same light color and bulb shape of the original, but offer a more energy-efficient version to Rosenzweig's popular vintage reproduction bulbs (modern tungsten coils are already more efficient). These bulbs maintain the same "exposed" look to further preserve the vintage reproduction style, and often employ the "ST" long-pear bulb shape for the same reason. LED bulbs, including LED retro types, are much more energy-efficient than any incandescent lighting.

A 2010 article in The New York Times noted that some restaurants were hanging hundreds of Edison light bulbs from their ceilings, stating: "Whether in hip hangouts tapping into the popular Victorian industrial look or elegant rooms seeking to warm up their atmosphere, the bulb has become a staple for restaurant designers, in part because it emulates candlelight and flatters both dinner and diner." Within several years, the aesthetic had begun to spread globally; in 2016, writer Kyle Chayka bemoaned in The Verge that every new cafe around the world was beginning to look the same, "whether in Odessa, Beijing, Los Angeles, or Seoul: the same raw wood tables, exposed brick, and hanging Edison bulbs." In the same year, Chayaka added in The Guardian:

It's no accident that these places look similar. Though they're not part of a chain and don’t have their interior design directed by a single corporate overlord, these coffee shops have a way of mimicking the same tired style, a hipster reduction obsessed with a superficial sense of history and the remnants of industrial machinery that once occupied the neighbourhoods they take over.