Image depicting the "flashing" room of the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company where workers prepare filaments for incandescent electric glow lamps using a process called "flashing" in which carbon is deposited onto a filament.
Album containing 52 black and white photographs documenting various aspects of the production process at the Welsbach Gas Light Company site located along the Delaware River in Gloucester City, New Jersey. From 1888 to 1940, the Welsbach Gas Light Company held exclusive manufacturing and sales rights to the Welsbach gas mantle, a device made of fibers impregnated with oxides of thorium and cerium that produced bright white light when heated with a gas flame. Invented in 1880's by Austrian scientist Carl Auer Von Welsbach (1858-1929), these gas mantles were used extensively in street lighting and in gas-powered appliances.
Lighter using pyrophoric alloys or "Misch" metals to create a spark.
Search the text transcripts of the Oral History Collection in the Digital Collection. Many of our oral history interviewees mention rare earths.
Welsbach Gas Mantel Collection
Othmer Library of Chemical History
Science History Institute
315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Monday - Friday
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Try searching the library catalog for specific elements, they're discoverer, or their related industries.
Element | Discovery | Common Uses | |
---|---|---|---|
Scandium | Lars Frederik Nilson in 1879 | Alloy for light-weight applications, | |
Yttrium | Johan Gadolin in 1794 | Superconductors, Glass, Lasers, LED lights, Alloys | |
Lanthanum | Carl Gustaf Mosander (1797-1858) | Glass, Flints, Semiconductor | |
Cerium | M.H. Klaproth, J.J. Berzelius, W. Hisinger in 1808 | Alloys, Flints, Catalysis, Light-bulbs, Pigment | |
Praseodymium | Carl Auer Baron von Welsbach in 1885 | Pigment for glass and ceramics, Electrodes for arc lamps | |
Neodymuim | Carl Auer Baron von Welsbach in 1885 | Electronics, Colored glass, Alloys, Flints | |
Promethium | J.A. Marinsky, L.E. Glendenin, and C.D. Coryell in 1945 | Atomic batteries, Luminescent paints, Source of radioactivity | |
Samarium | Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1879 | Magnets for electronic devices, Glass, Ceramics, Lighting | |
Europium | Eugène-Anatole Demarçay in 1901 | Color for inks and light bulbs, Control rods in nuclear reactors, Alloys | |
Gadolinium | Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1880 | Alloys, Nuclear reactors | |
Terbium |
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Solid-state electronics, Light bulbs, X-rays, Speakers | |
Dysprosium |
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Alloys for magnets in the green energy field, Nuclear reactor control rods, Lighting | |
Holmium | P.T. Cleve, M. Delafontaine and L. Soret in 1878 | Nuclear reactors, Alloys for magnets | |
Erbium | Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843 | In Glass for pink color, Gems, Fiber optic cables, Safety glass | |
Thulium | Per Teodor Cleve in 1879 | X-rays, Lasers | |
Ytterbium | Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1878 | Industrial catalyst | |
Lutetium | Georges Urbain, Charles James in 1907 | Catalyst, Research |