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 It was widely used starting in the 1870s for street and large building lighting until it was superseded by the incandescent light in the early 20th century.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
Safety lamp 1881 carried out extensive tests of all types of lamps and the final report in 1886 noted that there had been good progress made in producing electric lamps giving a light superior to that of oil lamps and expected economic and efficient lamps to become available soon. This turned out not to be the case and progress was slow in attaining reliability and economy. The Sussmann lamp was introduced into Britain in 1893 and following trials at Murton Colliery in Durham it became a widely used electric lamp with 3000 or so reported by the company in use in 1900