: Photo: emilgh/FlickrLight-emitting diodes, or LEDs, seem to be everywhere these days, from flashlights, to signs, to electronic graffiti. But they were not always the life of the party. The first LED was created in the 1920s in Russia when Oleg Vladimirovich Losev noticed that radio diodes emitted light under a current, but his discovery sat for decades without much notice.In 1962 Nick Holonyak Jr., an employee of General Electric created the first practical LED. The lights quickly became the standard for indicator lights in electronics, and as the technology advanced, they became useful light sources. Losev died of hunger in 1942 during the blockade of Leningrad, unaware of the modern sensation that would stem from his invention 60 years later.
Left: The cartoon image LED placards that were part of a Boston area guerilla marketing campaign for a 2007 film set off a bomb scare.
: Photo: EJP Photo/FlickrEnergy efficiency is on everyone's mind today. With a recent push from GE, compact fluorescent bulbs have become increasingly popular. Built to last up to 15 times longer than regular incandescent bulbs, they use as little as a fifth of the energy of incandescents. CFLs have some drawbacks: They emit an unpleasant hue and some versions tend to flicker when they start up -- both those problems have been addressed, so the lights perform more like classic bulbs. But the CFLs contain mercury, so they require special disposal and must be kept out of the landfill.
No comments:
Post a Comment