gas mantle

Nonelectric incandescent lamps include the gas-mantle lamp. The mantle is a mesh bag of fabric impregnated with a solution of nitrates of cerium and one or more of the following metals: thorium, beryllium, aluminum, or magnesium. The mantle is fixed over an orifice carrying a flammable gas such as natural…

…by the invention of the gas mantle. Thus improved, gas lighting remained popular for some forms of street lighting until the middle of the 20th century.

…from the pressure of the gas itself, to exploit the use of acetylene. Most of the equipment he designed entered general use. One device was an automatic mantle exchanger that brought a fresh mantle into use when the previous one had burned out. Another, economizing on gas, was the “sun…

…and engineer who invented the gas mantle, thus allowing the greatly increased output of light by gas lamps.

…von Welsbach, in developing the gas mantle in the 1880s, provided 30 extra years of profitability to the shareholders of gaslight companies (which at the time were threatened by the new electric light).

…in the commercial production of gas mantles. Such mantles are made by impregnating cotton or synthetic fibres with a 25 to 50 percent solution of Th(NO₃)₄ containing 0.5 to 1 percent each of thorium sulfate and cerous nitrate. The impregnated fibres are treated with aqueous ammonia, producing thorium hydroxide, Th(OH)₄,…