Unless references to a lamp development are known, and accessible, it is possible for the facts in the case to become entangled with supposition. It appears that that is the situation with the so-called De la Rue, or De la Rive, lamp that supposedly was developed and reported on within the first two decades of the 1800s. This writer will not add any clarification to the origin of the lamp but it is thought that a discussion of it might lead to the truth by a viewer of this webpage.
Below are seven drawings of the lamp in question that writers have used.
The sum total of what the quoted authors said about this lamp in the literature and technical books follows:
"A still nearer approach to the incandescent electric lamp was reached when the wire to be rendered incandescent by the passage of current was placed, as shown in Fig. 138, within a glass enclosing vessel, by means of which it might be protected from the air. Such a vessel was employed by De la Rue, and others, in their experiments on incandescent wires." 3In addition to the above, Lewis Mumford, in his Technics and Civilization, (1934 and 1963), gave a chronological list of inventions; an incandescent lamp, invented by De la Rue, is among those for the year 1820."The earliest record of any attempt at making an incandescent lamp was in 1820, when De la Rue made a lamp with a coil of platinum wire for a burner which was enclosed in a piece of glass tubing, the ends of which had brass caps. It was supposed to have had a vacuum, but how this was accomplished is not clear." 6
"In 1809 De La Rue (England) used a platinum coil in a glass tube with metal caps at the ends. It is possible that some of the air may have been exhausted from the tube, although evidence to this effect is lacking....De la Rue's lamp referred to above may have been of the vacuum type." 7
"The earliest known attempt to produce an incandescent electric-light was that made in 1820 by De la Rue, using a platinum burner." 9 The source for this statement was the book by Howell and Schroeder6.
"1820 De La Rue ( — ) makes a lamp with a coil of platinum for a burner. This was enclosed in a piece of glass tubing, the ends of which had brass caps. It was supposed to have had a vacuum, but how this was accomplished is not clear. This was the earliest record of any attempt to make an incandescent lamp." 10
"An even earlier incandescent lamp has been credited to the English experimenter De la Rue, who in 1809 is said to have enclosed a coil of platinum wire in glass tubing from which part of the air had been exhausted to prevent too rapid oxidation of the platinum." 11 The discrepancy in dates between the above statement and the caption in Fig. 5 above is most unusual in this well-researched and documented work.
"In fact, the first Edison lamp came some 59 years after the Frenchman, De La Rue, had produced an electric 'glow' by heating a coil of platinum in a glass tube...Many investigators followed De La Rue, all of them trying to obtain useful light from the heating of a wire by electric current." 12
"De la Rue is credited with making a filament incandescent lamp with a coiled platinum wire in 1820. The glass tube was sealed with brass caps and supposedly evacuated." 13
"Davy's work led also to the first crude incandescent lamps. The man credited with the first such lamp was an Englishman named De la Rue, who used a coil of platinum wire as a 'burner' in a length of glass tubing. This was in 1820."14
"Such men as Warren de la Rue (1815-89) and Sir William Grove (1811-96) realized that the success of the filament lamp was intimately linked with the problem of operating the filament in an oxygen-free atmosphere. In the experiments of de la Rue and of Grove (c 1840), directed towards the use of filaments of platinum wire enclosed in glass bulbs as highly evacuated as possible (figure 109), the lamps were found to possess only a short life, mainly owing to the imperfection of the vacuum but partly to the narrow margin between the temperature at which a platinum wire begins to glow and its melting-point." 15
"De la Rue made the earliest recorded attempt at making an incandescent lamp in 1820, when he mounted a coil of platinum wire in a glass tube. The ends of the tube were fitted with brass caps, to which the ends of the coil were connected. It was said to be a vacuum lamp, but there is no accounting how the vacuum was obtained; it is likely that the platinum coil did not burn in a complete vacuum. As only battery current was available, the cost of operation was prohibitive and the lamp remains of historical rather than practical interest."16 It should be mentioned that although no first name is mentioned in the quoted passage, in Lewis' index, on page 126, the lamp is attributed to Warren De la Rue.
"In 1820, De La Rue had made an incandescent lamp using a filament of platinum wire enclosed in glass tubing."19
"The Swiss Auguste Arthur de la Rive in 1820, was probably the first to use a coiled platinum filament in a partly evacuated glass tube." 20
A picture of the so-called De la Rue lamp was shown on the first slide in a technical lecture.21
Two names have surfaced as it regards this lamp: De la Rue and De la Rive. The individuals with those names who are considered most likely to have been connected with it was an Englishman, Warren De la Rue (1815-1889), born on the island of Guernsey, off the coast of France, and, Auguste-Arthur De la Rive (1801-1873), a citizen of Geneva, Switzerland. Also considered by this writer are the fathers of these two gentlemen. Warren was a son of Thomas De la Rue (1793-1866) and Auguste-Arthur was a son of Charles Gaspard De la Rive (1770-1834).
Only one independent reference gave a date of 1809 for the lamp development (Reference 7); the others gave 1820; the source of information for the date in Reference 9 was Reference 6. Reference 7 gave, as the source of information for the De la Rue lamp, the two-volume work titled Electric Illumination, which was edited by James Dredge. Both volumes were examined for a reference to De la Rue and only one was found, on pg 9 in Volume II (published in 1885). That reference was in regard to a liquid voltaic cell; no mention of a coiled platinum filament was found. The date of 1820 will be assumed to be the more likely one in this cursory study. If the lamp was developed in 1820 it would appear that one can rule out Warren De la Rue, based on his age at that time. In addition, Warren De La Rue was granted 23 patents in Great Britain during the period 1849 to 1884. None of the patents dealt with electric lamps. His father, Thomas, could possibly be the inventor. However, through the courtesy of a person at The British Library, it was revealed that Thomas De la Rue was granted nine patents during the period 1832-1862; none of these applied to electric lamps. Based on the Catalogue of Scientific Papers17, compiled by the Royal Society of London, no technical or scientific papers were written by Thomas De la Rue. Warren's first published scientific paper occurred in 1836, at age 21. The Catalogue of Scientific Papers contains 55 papers with Warren as sole author and 29 papers with him as a joint author. It would appear, then, that we can tentatively rule out both Warren and Thomas De la Rue as being the inventor of this platinum filament lamp.
If, indeed, the date 1809 is valid then it would seem that Auguste De la Rive can also be ruled out because of his age. De la Rive was a scientist who did a great amount of publishing in the French language. In the Catalogue of Scientific Papers there are listed over 100 articles authored singly by De la Rive, with the first one appearing in the year 1822. He also wrote a three-volume treatise on electricity, titled: A Treatise on Electricity: In Theory and Practice1, which was translated into the English language. He also worked on the voltaic disruptive discharge. No mention of a platinum filament lamp could be found in his Treatise. It should be mentioned that De la Rive did spend some time in England which, conceivably, would establish a tie between England and the lamp invention.If such a platinum filament lamp was invented by a De la Rue or De la Rive one might consider examining the works of Charles Gaspard De la Rive.
Although at this late date it might seem of little value to determine the facts in this lamp development, there is justification from a historical standpoint. If a viewer of this website is able to clarify this mystery the present writer would be happy to hear from him/her. It is for the benefit of all that this request is made. Simply send an e-mail message to me about your De la Rue or De la Rive information.
Acknowledgements
The subject of, and the questions regarding, the De la Rue (or De la Rive) lamp were brought to my attention by R. I. Feigenblatt. He and Noel Lawrence pondered the questions of authorship and date of appearance of this lamp and Dr. Feigenblatt shared some of their collective knowledge with me. I am grateful for their inquisitiveness as we all benefit from searches for the truth. The writer also acknowledges much help regarding patents issued in Great Britain, from Mrs. Maria Lampert, The British Library, London. An informative e-mail response from Mr. Peter D. Hingley, Librarian, Royal Astronomical Society, London, regarding Warren De la Rue, is also greatly appreciated.
References
(1) A Treatise on Electricity, in Theory and Practice, Aug. De La Rive, Translated by Charles V. Walker, in three volumes, Vol III, 1858, pg 317.
(2) "Experimental Researches on the Electric Discharge with the Chloride of Silver Battery", Nature, Vol XXVIII, Aug 16, 1883, pg 381. Abstract of a paper read at the Royal Society on June 14, by Warren De La Rue and Hugo W. Müller.
(3) Electricity in Every-Day Life, Vol 2, Edwin J. Houston, P. F. Collier & Son, New York, 1905, pg 247.
(4) "Thomas De La Rue (1793-1866)", Dictionary of National Biography, Vol V, The Macmillan Co., NY, 1908, pg 763.
(5) "Warren De La Rue (1815-1889)", Dictionary of National Biography, Vol XVII, The Macmillan Co., NY, 1909, pg 387.
(6) The History of the Incandescent Lamp, John W. Howell and Henry Schroeder, The Maqua Company, Schenectady, NY, 1927, pp 25-26.
(7) "The Development of the Incandescent Electric Lamp Up to 1879", Appendix B from the Report of the Lamp Committee, 1928-1929, Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, 1929, pg 4.
(8) Menlo Park Reminiscences, Vol 1, Francis Jehl, Edison Institute, Dearborn, MI, 1937, pg 344.
(9) Incandescent Electric Lamps, Report No 133, 2nd Series, United States Tariff Commission, Washington, 1939, pg 1.
(10) A Chronological History of Economic Development, National Electrical Manufacturers Assoc., New York, 1946, pg 18.
(11) The Electric-Lamp Industry: Technological Change and Economic Development from 1800 to 1947, Arthur A. Bright, Jr., The Macmillan Company, New York, 1949, pp 36-37.
(12) A Measure for Greatness — A Short Biography of Edward Weston, David O. Woodbury, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1949, pg 112.
(13) "Electric Lighting in the First Century of Engineering", R. L. Oetting, Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Vol. 71, Part 2, Nov 1952.
(14) Lamps for a Brighter America—A History of the General Electric Lamp Business, Paul W. Keating, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1954, pg 7.
(15) "The Distribution and Utilization of Electricity", C. Mackechnie Jarvis, A History of Technology, edited by Charles Singer, E.J. Holmyard, A.R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, Vol V, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1958, pp 208-209.
(16) The Incandescent Light - A Review of Its Invention and Applications, Floyd A. Lewis, Shorewood Publications, Inc, NY, 1961, pp 14-15.
(17) Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800-1863), Compiled by the Royal Society of London, Scarecrow Reprint Corp., Metuchen, NJ, 1968.
(18) "Warren De La Rue", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol IV, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1971, pp 18-19.
(19) Early Lighting — A Pictorial Guide, Compiled and Published by the Rushlight Club, 1979, pg 131.
(20) History of Light and Lighting, G. W. Stoer, Philips Lighting Division, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1986, pg 20.
(21) "The Tungsten Lamp Filament - A Materials Marvel", Slide 1 of 50. http://neon.mems.cmu.edu/cramb/27-100/present2000/index.htm Under "Table of Contents" click on the first PPT Slide.
(22) "Auguste-Arthur de La Rive", http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/rive.html