Millions of years ago, when the first humans walked on the earth, the sun was their only source of energy. The sun gave them light, warmth, and later food crops. Every night when the sun goes down, the world is dark.
Since then, humans have been looking for other ways to light up the world -- from fire and torches to modern LEDs.
In the development of human lighting tools, it has experienced three major revolutions, namely the emergence and application of oil lamps, electric lamps, and LED lamps.
In ancient times, in order to defend the beasts and drive out the darkness, humans applied turpentine or fat to bark or wood chips and tied them together to make torches for lighting. After satisfying the basic survival requirements, people hope to apply the fire to life. Therefore, people put the combustible fat into the container, add the wick to light, and become the originator of the oil lamp. The use of oil lamps has allowed humans to extend their working hours by 2-3 hours. This is the first revolution in the history of human lighting. The history of human use of oil lamps has been particularly long. The oil lamps have also undergone several improvements. Oil lamps have been changed from animal oils to vegetable oils, and they have finally been replaced by kerosene.
The second revolution in human lighting tools came from the emergence of electricity. The emergence of electricity has brought about a quantum leap in human productivity, and the invention of the electric light has also created a history of human use of electricity to illuminate. In 1879, Edison ignited the first real electric light with a wide range of practical values, and humans formally moved into the era of electricity lighting.
In the stage of electric lighting, the development of lighting tools includes a variety of colorful electric lamps. Among them: The electric light bulb is also called the incandescent lamp, this is the earliest electric lamp. Only 10% of the input energy of the incandescent lamp is converted into visible light energy, and the life span is from several tens of hours to several thousand hours. It is still widely used. The halogen lamp is improved on the basis of the incandescent lamp, and its volume is higher than that of the incandescent lamp. It is small, and it is filled with a heavier gas at a high pressure, thereby increasing the luminous efficiency and prolonging the service life. The steam lamp is illuminated by currents of various elements sealed in the glass tube. Steam lamps commonly used high-pressure sodium vapor lamps, mainly used in road lighting.
The third revolution in human lighting tools was the development of LED lights. Development of LEDs From 1907, British scientist Henry Joseph Round first observed the phenomenon of electroluminescence in a piece of silicon carbide. In 1962, Nick Holonyak (GE) invented the LED that could emit red light, 1972. George Craford invented the first orange-yellow LED in 1993, the first blue LED lamp in 1993, and the first white LED lamp in 1999. Eventually, in the field of LED research and development, a lamp close to natural light was developed and used for indoor lighting. LED has a series of advantages such as high efficiency, energy saving, long life, and environmental protection, and is called the light of hope. LED energy saving and environmental protection lamps can make human life more comfortable, healthy and convenient. It is an essential green technology lighting revolution for human beings, and it is another great revolution in the history of human lighting since the incandescent lamp.
In addition to developing energy-saving, high-performance LEDs, we also learned how to control light and developed a series of sensors such as daylight sensors, inductive sensors, and camera-based technologies.