Resources — Lighting basics

Light Sources are also referred to as lamps in the industry and as bulbs by most people. The original lamp or artificial light source was the incandescent or standard bulb invented by Thomas Edison in the 1870’s. Since then a wide range of other lamps have been introduced from Halogen to HID to compact fluorescents and now LED bulbs. Below we cover some basic terminology. Lamp Terminology Arc Length: In High Intensity Discharge lamps, arc length is the distance between the electrode tips, which represents the physical length of the electricaldischarge. Arc Tube: An envelope that contains the arc of a discharge light source; it isusually made...