Gas mantle

A heat-resistant fabric mesh impregnated with metal oxides that glows brightly when heated by a gas flame. It converts flame heat into intense visible light.

Incandescence: Light emission caused by an object’s high temperature. The heated oxides glow by incandescence rather than by ordinary flame luminosity.
Carl Auer von Welsbach: An Austrian chemist and inventor who developed the incandescent gas mantle in the 1880s. His experiments with rare-earth oxides produced the practical mantle design.
Pressure lantern: A portable lamp that vaporizes pressurized fuel and uses a mantle to produce bright light. The mantle made pressure lanterns far brighter than simple wick lamps.
Argand lamp: An oil lamp with a circular wick and glass chimney that produces a bright, steady flame. It was a major pre-gas-lighting source of bright illumination, using a different mechanism.
Luminous efficacy: The amount of visible light produced per unit of power consumed. Mantles extracted more visible light from fuel than a bare gas flame.
Thorium dioxide: A refractory oxide used in traditional gas mantles to produce intense light when heated. Thorium dioxide formed the principal light-emitting material in many classic mantles.
Gas lighting: The use of combustible gas to provide artificial illumination. Gas mantles transformed the brightness achievable with existing gas-lighting systems.
Kerosene mantle lamp: A lamp that vaporizes kerosene and heats a mantle to produce incandescent light. It adapted mantle technology to liquid fuel where piped gas was unavailable.
Electric incandescent lamp: A lamp that produces light by heating an electric filament until it glows. It replaced gas mantles in many settings without requiring a fuel flame.
Thorium-232: A naturally occurring radioactive isotope of thorium with a very long half-life. Thorium-232 in traditional mantles produces decay products that can pose an inhalation hazard if material is damaged.

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