John M. Anderson was born in Kansas City, Missouri on October 9, 1924, being the son of Melvin and Myrtle Anderson. Local schools were attended and he completed three semesters at Kansas City Junior College before being inducted into the United States Army.On March 12, 1943 John traded civilian clothes for Army issue. He received basic training in Field Artillery at Camp Beale, California. He then attended the Army Specialized Training Program and in August, 1944 was assigned to the Plant Engineering Agency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This Agency, through the Army Airways Communication System, installed and maintained world-wide communications, radio aids to navigation and meteorological equipment for the Army and Air force. While he was stationed in Philadelphia Anderson taught theory and practice of radio transmitters.
On February 19, 1946, after serving his country during war time, John left the Army to attend the University of Illinois. In 1955 he earned the Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from that institution. In that same year, 1955, John Anderson started employment with the General Electric Company at their Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York.
Anderson started to work on his SEF lamp as early as 1968. However, it wasn't until about 26 years later, in 1994, that the lamp was marketed. He presented a paper on the lamp at the 3rd International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Light Sources, which was held 18-21 April, 1983 at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France. A summary of his paper follows:
"Fluorescent lamp technology can give high efficacy and long life, but electrode losses are emphasized and efficacy suffers if the lamp is simply shortened to the size of the incandescent lamp in an attempt to devise a compact light source. Folding the lamp retains the ratio of column to end losses, but complete elimination of the electrodes by excitation of the plasma with a solenoidal electric field (SEF) can give a quite small toroidal plasma which efficaciously excites the phosphor. A ferrite toroid core is chosen to give tight coupling through transformer action between the electronic ballast generating 100 kHz power and the plasma as a one-turn secondary."A 2000 lumen lamp, 7.6 cm in diameter and 15 cm overall, with integral ballast can have more than 50 lumens per watt. Frequency of operation with presently available ferrites is 100 kHz. The ferrite is supported in the discharge space and is excited by a ten-turn primary winding, the wire of which is protected by thin glass sleeving. Narrow-line phosphors, with red and green emission, as developed by Philips Co., cover the ferrite, and the inside surface of the glass envelope. The blue emission from mercury complements the phosphor to match closely the color temperature of incandescent. The ferrite core temperature was measured at 300°C (Curie temperature ~370°C) and envelope temperature at 100°C for a lamp with 30-35 watts to the primary winding. Thus mercury pressure needs control and this was done by a Pb/Bi/Sn alloy, also described by Philips workers.
"Krypton was found to be a better choice for fill gas than argon for two reasons, its lower discharge voltage reduced ferrite core loss to ~3 watts, and its inherent "positive column" efficacy was higher at low gas pressures and high loading. We measured the positive column efficacy for a freshly-constructed lamp at about 70 lumens per watt for a rare gas pressure of 0.5 Torr. Considering ferrite core loss, light loss by attachment of lamp to ballast shell, and ballast efficiency, say 90%, an overall lamp efficacy greater than 50 lumens per watt is attainable. The lamp is dimmable, has instant start and restart and can be made in a lumens package from ~500 to 2500 lumens."
What follows is a list of four major accomplishments by Anderson at the GE Research Laboratory:
1) Synthetic testing of high power circuit breakers and the building of test facilities for the same.
2) Measurements of over 200 lumens /watt in high pressure, electrodeless, high frequency NaI and other MH discharges.
3) Complete description of the cathode region in a fluorescent lamp using Runge-Kutta and Monte Carlo techniques.
4) Initiated work on screw-in fluorescent lamps, self-ballasted, called "SEF" while in development and known as GENURA when marketed.
It is the GENURA lamp which is singled out to briefly discuss. Perhaps John is best known for his significant contributions toward this induction lamp. It is the first commercial electrodeless induction light source that has a self-contained ballast. It is a retrofit lamp, designed to replace incandescent reflector lamps. It is more than four times as efficient as the incandescent, yielding about 50 lumens/watt. The lamp was introduced at the Hannover Fair in April of 1994. There are some websites to which one can be directed to learn more of the design characteristics5, 6, 7.
There have been 37 U. S. patents issued to Anderson. Those that pertain to lamps and lighting follow:
1) 3,500,118 - Electrodeless Gaseous Electric Discharge Devices Utilizing Ferrite Cores (issued Mar 10, 1970)
2) 3,521,120 - High Frequency Electrodeless Fluorescent Lamp Assembly
3) 3,883,764 - Cathode Structure for High Current, Low Pressure Discharge Devices
4) 3,987,334 - Integrally Ballasted Electrodeless Fluorescent Lamp
5) 3,987,335 - Electrodeless Fluorescent Lamp Bulb RF Power Energized Through Magnetic Core Located Partially Within Gas Discharge Space
6) 4,005,330 - Electrodeless Fluorescent Lamp
7) 4,017,764 - Electrodeless Fluorescent Lamp Having a Radio Frequency Gas Discharge Excited by a Closed Loop Magnetic Core
8) 4,093,893 - Short Arc Fluorescent Lamp
9) 4,176,296 - Core Mounting for Solenoidal Electric Field Lamps
10) 4,180,763 - High Intensity Discharge Lamp Geometries
11) 4,187,447 - Electrodeless Fluorescent Lamp with Reduced Spurious Electromagnetic Radiation
12) 4,262,231 - Helical Wire Coil in Solenoidal Lamp Tip-Off Region Wetted by Alloy Forming an Amalgam with Mercury
13) 4,410,829 - Use of Amalgams in Solenoidal Electric Field Lamps
14) 4,461,970 - Shielded Hollow Cathode Electrode for Fluorescent Lamp
15) 4,499,400 - Use of Amalgams in Solenoidal Electric Field Lamps
16) 4,508,993 - Fluorescent Lamp Without Ballast
17) 4,523,125 - Fluorescent Lamp Electrodes
18) 4,528,209 - Use of Amalgams in Solenoidal Electric Field Lamps
19) 4,739,227 - Fluorescent Lamp Dimming Over Large Light Output Range
20) 4,803,404 - Envelope for Small High-Intensity-Discharge Electrodeless Arc Lamp
21) 4,810,938 - High Efficacy Electrodeless High Intensity Discharge lamp
22) 4,812,702 - Excitation Coil for HID Electrodeless Discharge Lamp
23) 4,910,439 - Luminaire Configuration for Electrodeless High Intensity Discharge Lamp
24) 4,959,584 - Luminaire for an Electrodeless High Intensity Discharge Lamp
25) 4,959,592 - Starting Electrodes for HID Lamps
26) 5,006,763 - Luminaire for an Electrodeless High Intensity Discharge Lamp with Electromagnetic Interference Shielding
27) 5,175,476 - Magnetically Tunable Starting Circuit for an Electrodeless High Intensity Discharge Lamp (issued Dec 29, 1992)
During the years 1963-71 Anderson taught plasma measurements at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York as an adjunct associate professor. He retired from GE on April 1st 1987.
On June 16th 1950 John Anderson married Lois E. Koester and they have four children: Charles, James, Ruth and Julie. After retirement he has kept busy giving talks and he also consults and researches early radio history. He is a volunteer at the Schenectady Museum, beginning at the Hall of Electrical History since 1986, before it merged with the Museum in 1997. He has served as a Trustee of the Hall of History Foundation in Schenectady, New York.
Acknowledgement
The writer is grateful to John Anderson for providing personal and professional material for the writers use; he also provided the photograph for use in this write-up.
References and Bibliography
1) Summary of contributed paper, John M. Anderson, "Operation and Efficacy Measurement of Electrodeless HID Lamps", 4th International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Light Sources, University of Karlsruhe, F. R. Germany, April 7-10, 1986, pp 99-101.
2) Summary of contributed paper, John M. Anderson and Peter D. Johnson, "Efficacy Measurements for Unconventional Fills in Electrodeless HID Lamps", 4th International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Light Sources, University of Karlsruhe, F. R. Germany, April 7-10, 1986, pp 103-104.
3) Wharmby, D. O., "Electrodeless Lamps for Lighting: A Review", IEE Proceedings-A, Vol 140, No 6, November 1993, pp 465-473.
4) Lamps and Lighting, edited by J. R. Coaton and A. M. Marsden, Arnold - A Member of the Hodder Headline Group, 4th Edition, 1997, pp 220-225.
5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodeless_lamp
6) http://195.178.164.205/IAEEL/iaeel/newsl/1994/ett1994/LiTech_1_94.html
7) http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec%20Sheets/GE%20Genura.htm