14 DAY TRIAL // 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.
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.
