How to

How Gas Lanterns Work

Alternative light sources

By Gabriel Gache, Science News Editor

13th of June 2008, 12:54 GMT

Adjust text size:

Well, today we have a great deal of electrically powered devices acting as light sources, but what if we didn't have electricity or if you were to go on a camping trip, what then? As far as I know, not many trees in the woods come with an outlet. One could use a gas lantern to light up one's path in the darkness of the night, for example, but how do gas lanterns actually work?

To answer this question, one must first understand what incandescence is about. Incandescence is the property of the material to emit light in the visible wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum when heated to a certain temperature. Iron for example, starts glowing in bright red light at a temperature of about 800 degrees Celsius, while the wolfram filaments used in typical light bulbs emit a yellowish white light when reaching a temperature of about 2,500 degrees Celsius.

As you can see, the temperature a material starts glowing at depends on the chemical structure of said material and just about any object that is heated up to a temperature high enough will start emitting visible light.

Image showing the two mantles of a gas lantern

Gas lanterns work on the same principle and they are in fact an incandescent light source, although instead of using electricity to heat up a material they use a series of combustible fluids, such as propane, white gas or even kerosene. The heat emitted during the burning of the combustible is used to heat up a so-called mantle that is actually a ceramic mesh that envelops the flame (see bottom image).

Mantles are manufactured out of silk fabric that is impregnated with certain oxides, such as thorium oxides, cerium oxides and magnesium oxides. This particular type of mantle is called Welsbach and is no longer standard. As the gas lantern is lit for the first time the silk fabric base is burned away, leaving behind the oxides that form a brittle ceramic structure that emits bright light as it is heated.

TAGS:

electricity | light | gas lantern | incandescence

SEARCH THE NEWS ARCHIVE :

Today's News | Yesterday's News | News Archive

User opinions:

No user comments yet.

Be the first to express your opinion using the form below!

Share your opinion:

SUBMIT PROGRAM \| ADVERTISE \| GET HELP \| SEND US FEEDBACK \| RSS FEEDS \| ENTER NEWS SITE \| ENGLISH BOARD \| ROMANIAN FORUM
© 2001 - 2008 Softpedia. All rights reserved. Softpedia™ and the Softpedia™ logo are registered trademarks of SoftNews NET SRL.	Copyright Information \| Privacy Policy \| Terms of Use \| Update your software \| Archive

NEWS CATEGORIES: