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 It was widely used starting in the 1870s for street and large building lighting until it was superseded by the incandescent light in the early 20th century.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
Signal lamp lamps are still used today, as a backup device in case of a complete failure of an aircraft's radio. Light signals can be green, red, or white, and steady or flashing. Messages are limited to a handful of basic instructions (e.g., "land", "stop", etc.); they are not intended to be used for transmitting messages in Morse code. Aircraft can acknowledge signals by rocking their wings or flashing their landing lights. Signal lamp A signal lamp (sometimes called an Aldis lamp, after Arthur Cyril Webb Aldis who invented a widely used design, or a Morse lamp) is a visual signaling device