Arc lamp Arc lamp An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc). The carbon arc light, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, was the first practical electric light. It was widely used starting in the 1870s for street and large building lighting until it was superseded by the incandescent light in the early 20th century. It continued in use in more specialized applications where a high intensity point light source was needed, such as
Carbide lamp of Dalén's previous inventions: the substrate Agamassan and the Sun valve. Inventions and improvements to carbide lamps continued for decades. After carbide lamp open flames were implicated in an Illinois coal-seam methane gas explosion that killed 54 miners, the 1932 Moweaqua Coal Mine disaster, carbide lamp use declined in United States coal mines. They continued to be used in the coal pits of other countries, notably Russia and the Ukraine. In the birth of the cinema of Iquitos, a carbide lamp was used as light support to project the first film in the Casa de Fierro, in 1900. Carbide lighting