Name: Fernandez, Jeffrey B. ECE 005 Engr.

Fernando Victor de Vera

ME31S1

Peter Cooper Hewitt

In 1901, Peter Cooper Hewitt (May 5, 1861 – August 25, 1921) invented the first mercury-vapor
lamp. On September 17, 1901, Hewitt received US patent #682692. In 1903, Hewitt developed a
better version with better color qualities, which went on to be widely used in industry.

Though Edison and others struggled with incandescent filaments, other inventors experimented
with electrical discharges as a means of producing light. In the late 1890s, Hewitt started
producing mercury-filled tubes, but discovered that they emitted an unappealing bluish-green
light. The amount of light, on the other hand, was astounding. Hewitt knew that few people would
want his lamps in their homes, so he focused his efforts on creating a product that could be used
for other purposes.

He invented and patented the mercury vapor lamp in 1901, which was a gas discharge lamp that
used mercury vapor produced by passing current through liquid mercury. To start his first lamps,
he had to tilt the tube to make contact between the two electrodes and the liquid mercury; later,
he invented the inductive ballast to start the tube. The efficiency was much higher than
incandescent lamps, but the emitted light had an unpleasant bluish-green hue, which restricted
its practical use to particular technical areas such as photography, where color was not a problem
at a time when films were black and white.

The lamp was often supplemented by a regular incandescent lamp for space lighting. The
combination of the two produced a more appropriate hue. Later in the 1930s, General Electric
applied a fluorescent coating (phosphor) to the inside of the tube, which removed the ultraviolet
light from the mercury and provided a more appealing white light. The fluorescent lamp, which is
now one of the most commonly used lamps in the world, was invented in this way

Hewitt invented the mercury arc rectifier in 1902, which was the first rectifier to transform
alternating current power to direct current without the use of mechanical means. Electric railways,
industry, electroplating, and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission were all
applications for it. While power semiconductor devices largely replaced it in the 1970s and 1980s,
it is still used in some high-power applications.

References:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8189133.Peter_Cooper_Hewitt

https://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/bios/hewitt.htm