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Werner von Bolton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Werner von Bolton (8 April 1868 – 28 October 1912) was a German chemist and materials scientist. He devised a technique for producing filaments for incandescent light bulb made out of tantalum in 1902.

Life

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Werner von Bolton was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire. He went on to study Chemistry at the Technische Hochschule Berlin and in Leipzig. Post-Graduation, von Bolton worked at the company Siemens & Halske in Berlin. In 1895 he achieved his doctorate.

In 1902 von Bolton detected the benefits of using Tantalum as a material in the production of filaments. Tantalum allowed for a greater luminosity with lower energy consumption when compared with previous alternatives such as coal.[1]

In 1905, Siemens & Halske awarded von Bolton the position of director of the first central laboratory of the company, later the Physics and Chemistry laboratory.

After 1910, the bulbs with a tantalum filament were replaced by those with a tungsten filament.

Von Bolton died in Berlin on 28 October 1912. He is honoured with the Boltonstraße, a street named after him in Siemensstadt, an area of Berlin's Spandau district.

References

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  1. ^ Werner; Bolton (1906). "Das Tantal und die Tantallampe". Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie. 19 (36): 1537–1540. doi:10.1002/ange.19060193602.
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