Werner von Bolton

Werner von Bolton ( born April 8, 1868 in Tbilisi, † October 28, 1912 in Berlin) was a German chemist and materials scientist. He invented a method of manufacturing filaments of tantalum, which replaced the previously usual carbon filaments from 1905.

Life

Werner studied by Bolton Chemistry in Berlin (Charlottenburg, Technical University Berlin ) and Leipzig and first worked as an intern for Siemens & Halske, where he received his doctorate in 1895. In 1896 he became head of laboratory of the light bulb factory of Siemens & Halske.

1902 Bolton discovered the benefits of the chemical element tantalum ( Ta) as a material for the production of filaments: filament lamps with tantalum filament had a longer usage time and had a greater brightness with lower power consumption ( higher light output ) than lamps with carbon filaments. Another benefit was the improved vibration strength; this simplified et al the shipment of lamps.

With his colleague Otto Feuerlein he worked on the practical implementation. In 1903 he succeeded to melt pure tantalum in vacuum arc furnace with water-cooled nickel electrodes. Siemens brought Bolton filament in January 1905 in its tantalum lamp on the market. By 1914, over 50 million units by the method of Bolton and Feuerlein were produced worldwide.

As of 1910, the tantalum lamp was due to the work of William David Coolidge gradually through the still common light bulb with tungsten filament replaced (highest melting point and thus highest luminous efficiency of all metals ), for which Siemens then acquired the manufacturer license from the United States.

Siemens & Halske handed Bolton 1905, the leadership of the first central laboratory of the company, the later the Physical Chemistry Laboratory.

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