Incandescent light bulb granted a Hungarian patent (No. 34541) for a tungsten filament lamp that lasted longer and gave brighter light than the carbon filament. Tungsten filament lamps were first marketed by the Hungarian company Tungsram in 1904. This type is often called Tungsram-bulbs in many European countries. Filling a bulb with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen slows down the evaporation of the tungsten filament compared to operating it in a vacuum. This allows for greater temperatures and therefore greater efficacy with less reduction in filament life. In 1906, William D. Coolidge developed a method of making "ductile tungsten" from
Incandescent light bulb 1914, 88.5 million lamps were used, (only 15% with carbon filaments), and by 1945, annual sales of lamps were 795 million (more than 5 lamps per person per year). Of the power consumed by typical incandescent light bulbs, 95% or more is converted into heat rather than visible light. Other electrical light sources are more effective. Luminous "efficacy" of a light source may be defined in two ways. The radiant luminous efficacy (LER) is the ratio of the visible light flux emitted (the "luminous flux") to the total power radiated over all wavelengths. The source luminous efficacy (LES) is the