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MERCURY VAPOR

LAMPS
(High Pressure Mercury Vapor Lamps)

Mercury Vapor Lamps


a gas discharge lamp that uses an electric arc through
vaporized mercury to produce light
first high intensity discharge lamps to be commercially
available

Mercury Vapor Lamps


High Pressure

104106 N/m2

wavelength range of 248 to 1,014 nm

Low Pressure

approximately 0.7 N/m2

wavelengths of 185 to 254 nanometers

HISTORY
1835 - Tested mercury vapor
arcs in air at common
atmosphere

Charles Wheatstone (London)


worked with arcs through mercury during this
tests in spectropy. He would create an arc through
a metal, then observe what colors it produced
when a prism separated the light into it's
individual frequencies.

1860 - Developed a rudimentary mercury


vapor lamp

John Thomas Way (London)

Developed a mercury vapor lamp. He tested them on the


Hammersmith Bridge in London.

HISTORY
1892 - Developed an
experimental mercury vapor
lamp

Leo Arons, (University of Berlin).


His lamp worked fine but had a
green blue color that was not
acceptable to most people.

1901 - The First Commercial


Mercury Vapor Lamp

Peter Cooper Hewitt (New York City)


had a history of innovations in other fields, and
when he set about on the project of the mercury
vapor lamp in 1898 it only took 3 years to
develop the first reliable lamp with a acceptable
color of light.

Cooper Hewitt Electric Lamps

HISTORY
1906 - Higher pressure mercury vapor
light in a fuzed quartz tube is developed

Kuch & Retschinsky (Siemens, Munich)

1936 - The modern highpressure mercury vapor lamp


is developed, type MB
Philips

PARTS

PARTS
This is a "Lifegaurd" brand
lamp by Westinghouse, it
needs a ballast to run.UV rays
are produced, but blocked by
the borosilicate glass.

PARTS
The photo below shows a self-ballasted lamp, notice
the tungsten filament.

PARTS
Arc tube(inner tube)
fabricated from quartz
contains argon and
mercury
Main Electrodes
Holds tungsten rods
Produce electrons

Starting electrode
Used for starting the main
arc

Outer bulb

made of borosilicate glass


to prevent UV rays from
escaping

Ballast
Limits the current

CONSTRUCTION

CONSTRUCTION
The lamp consists of two bulbs, inner bulb and outer bulb.
The electric discharge takes place in the inner bulb.
The outer bulb protects the inner bulb and reduces loss of heat.
The inner bulb consists of a small amount of mercury and argon gas.
The two electrodes A and B are made up of electron emitting
material.
Three electrodes A, B and S are provided in the inner bulb.
The electrode A is connected to electrode S through a high
resistance.
Choke L and capacitor C forms the control circuits of the lamp.

Working Principle
When the supply is switched on, the initial discharge is established between
electrode B and S through the argon gas and then between electrodes A and
B.
The heat produced due to this discharge is sufficient to vaporize mercury
and the discharge through the mercury vapor takes place.
In this normal operation of the lamp, it emits or radiates its characteristic
light.
The electrode S is called as starting electrode or auxiliary electrode.
The choke serves to limit the current drawn by the electrodes to a safe limit.
The capacitor C improves the power factor of the lamp.
These lamps are widely used for outdoor street lighting where a high
illumination is necessary, where the color of the light is not important.

Lamp Efficacy

USES
Area and street lighting
Molecular spectroscopy
Photolithography
Projection

ADVANTAGES
- Good efficiency (lamps after 1980s have a high lumen
per watt rating)
- Color rendering is better than that of high pressure
sodium street lights
- Some lamps last far longer than the 24000 hour mark,
sometimes 40 years

DISADVANTAGES
- Like many lamps it contains traces of mercury which
must be disposed of properly
- HPS streetlights have a better lumen per watt rating
- Human skin looks green under the light, it is poor for
color film/photography
-Warm up time required to start the lamp

Line spectrum of mercury vapor. The blue-green


tint of mercury vapor lamps is caused by the
strong violet and green lines.

In this clear bulb zinc and cadmium are metals


used along with the mercury to help color and
brightness.

A Mercury Vapor with a


transformer (ballast) build into
the base

The bulb at left is just warming up, the bulb at right is after a few minutes of warming. This bulb has
phosphor to help make the light more of a true white color. It can take several minutes to warm up.

small amounts of mercury visible on a large discharge tube

THE END

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