Science: Krypton Lamps

In 1,000,000 quarts of air there is one quart of krypton. An inert gas discovered in 1898 by Ramsay and Travers, krypton is scarcer and less volatile than argon, neon and xenon; its name means “the hidden one.” In the U. S., small quantities of krypton have been obtained by Linde Air Products Co. and Air Reduction Co. during the fractional distillation (selective boiling) of liquid air, and sold to academic laboratories for $100 a litre if pure, $15 a litre if mixed. Argon or nitrogen at low pressure are the usual fillers for electric tamp bulbs manufactured in the U. S. In Europe, however, krypton-filled lamps have been manufactured by Philips Glowlamp Works of Holland and other companies for about three years. Krypton lamps cost 75¢, compared to 25¢ for argon lamps, but their sponsors claim that a 40-watt krypton lamp sheds as much light as an ordinary 50-watt bulb and that the cooling effect of krypton remarkably prolongs the bulb’s life.

Last week Duro-Test Corp., which now makes 20,000 industrial lamps a day, announced that it would start making 50,000 krypton lamps a day, for both industrial and household use, in a new plant at North Bergen, N. J. Dr. Emanuel Spielholz, Duro-Test consultant, was back from a European survey with $150,000 worth of krypton extracting machinery purchased abroad, to which he expects to add some refinements of his own. President of Duro-Test is a small, jovial Jew named Maxwell Monroe Bilofsky, who is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and keeps a ticker running in his downtown office. Dr. Bilofsky, who has no great love for his gargantuan competitor, General Electric Co., claims that General Electric—which has affiliations with Philips of Holland—has done its best for years to keep krypton lamps out of the U. S. Dr. Spielholz believes that U. S. consumers could save $32,000,000 annually in lighting bills by using krypton lamps.