Langmuir, Irving

SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Public utilities

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b. 31 January 1881 Brooklyn, New York, USA

d. 16 August 1957 Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA

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American Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 1932 who was responsible for a number of important scientific developments ranging from electric lamps, through a high-vacuum transmitting tube (for broadcasting) to a high-vacuum mercury pump for studies in atomic structure, in radar and the stimulation of artificial rainfall.

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Langmuir took a degree in metallurgical engineering at Columbia University School of Mines, and then a PhD in chemistry at Göttingen University in Germany. For much of his life he carried out research in physical chemistry at the General Electric Research Laboratory at Schenechtady, New York, where he remained until his retirement in 1950. One important result of his work there led to a great improvement in artificial illumination of homes. This was his development in 1913 of a much more efficient electric light bulb, which was filled with argon gas and had a coiled filament. The idea of using an inert gas was an old one, but it was not a viable proposition until a filament that could be coiled became available. Overall, Langmuir's lamp was more reliable than previous designs and gave a brighter light.

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Further Reading

Arthur A.Bright, 1949, The Electric Lamp Industry, New York: Macmillan. Floyd A.Lewis, 1961, The Incandescent Light, New York: Shorewood.

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