arc lamp

American  

[ahrk lamp] / ˈɑrk ˌlæmp /

noun

plural

arc lamps

1. Also, arc light. a lamp in which the light source is a high-intensity electric arc either between carbon rods in air or between metal electrodes in a xenon gas atmosphere enclosed in a quartz bulb.

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arc lamp Scientific  

1. An electric light in which a current produces light when an arc traverses the gap between two incandescent electrodes in a container filled with a gas, such as xenon. The two electrodes are usually made of carbon and are eventually vaporized by the heat they generate. Arc lamps are used to produce intense light (as in spotlights) and to produce heat for welding.

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Example Sentences

When he was 19, he produced an arc lamp and soon after secured patents on motors, generators and their regulators.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sun rises early along the mid-coast of Maine, and in November it can be as brilliant as an arc lamp, unkindly revealing imperfections and the wrinkles of age.

From Time Magazine Archive

He approached the lighthouse engineering firm of Chance Brothers Co., who said they could furnish a special high-intensity arc lamp operating through three lenses to give a single beam of 15,000,000,000 candlepower.

From Time Magazine Archive

To pick it up, jump into the ditch, run along the path, and round the corner away from the dazzling rays of the arc lamp did not take many seconds.

From 13 Days The Chronicle of an Escape from a German Prison by Caunter, John Alan Lyde

The various improvements in electric illuminants, such as the Nernst oxide lamp, the tantalum and osmium incandescent lamps, and improved forms of arc lamp, enclosed, inverted and flame arcs, are described under Lighting: Electric.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 2 "Ehud" to "Electroscope" by Various