Nernst lamp

The Nernst lamp was an early electric incandescent lamp invented by Walther Nernst. It utilized a filament made from a mixture of magnesia and rare earth metal oxides. When heated to a high temperature, this filament became luminous and electrically conductive, allowing it to emit light without needing a vacuum. The lamp required a preheating mechanism, such as a platinum spiral, to initiate its operation. While Nernst's lamp designs had limited success and a short lifespan, his "Nernst glower" found a lasting application in time-resolved infrared spectrophotometry. Nernst, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry, was a pioneer in physical chemistry and also developed the Nernst equation and contributed to the third law of thermodynamics.12