Many Filipinos recognize Agapito Flores as the inventor of the fluorescent lamp, which is the most widely used source of lighting in the world today. The fluorescent lamp supposedly got its name from Flores. Agapito Flores was born in Guiguinto, Bulacan, Philippines on September 28, 1897. He worked as an apprentice in a machine shop and later moved to Tondo, Manila where he trained at a vocational school to become an electrician. It has been reported that Agapito Flores received a French patent for a fluorescent bulb and that the General Electric Company bought Flores' patent rights and manufactured and sold his fluorescent bulb (making millions from it). However, all the inventors named above and more predate Agapito Flores' possible work on any fluorescent bulb. The fluorescent lamp, on the other hand, was not invented in a particular year. It was the product of 79 years of the development of the lighting method that began with the invention of the electric light bulb by Thomas Edison.
Among the other inventors who assert credit for developing the fluorescent lamp were French physicist A. E. Becquerel (1867), Nikola Tesla, Albert Hall (1927), Mark Winsor and Edmund Germer. Andre Claude was French inventor recognized for developing the fluorescent tubular lighting systems. Yet, he was not officially recognized as the inventor of fluorescent lamp. It was reported that the General Electric and Westinghouse obtained Claude's patent rights and developed the fluorescent lamp that we know today.
According to Filipino scientists, fluorescent lamp was not named after Flores. The term fluorescence first cropped up as early as 1852 when English mathematician-physicist George Gabriel Stokes discovered a bright material calledfluorspar, which he coined with escence. The National Academy of Science and Technology also discharge Flores being the inventor of fluorescent lamp as a myth. No scientific report, no valid statement, no rigorous documents can be used to credit Flores for the discovery of the fluorescent lamp. We have tried to correct this misconception, but the media and our textbooks keep using the Flores example, a Filipino scientist wrote in her column at the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The fluorescent lamps were introduced into the U.S. market in 1938. Still, Filipinos recognize Agapito Flores as the inventor of the product that illuminated the world.
 |
| fluorescent lamp |
According to Filipino scientists, fluorescent lamp was not named after Flores. The term fluorescence first cropped up as early as 1852 when English mathematician-physicist George Gabriel Stokes discovered a bright material calledfluorspar, which he coined with escence. The National Academy of Science and Technology also discharge Flores being the inventor of fluorescent lamp as a myth. No scientific report, no valid statement, no rigorous documents can be used to credit Flores for the discovery of the fluorescent lamp. We have tried to correct this misconception, but the media and our textbooks keep using the Flores example, a Filipino scientist wrote in her column at the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The fluorescent lamps were introduced into the U.S. market in 1938. Still, Filipinos recognize Agapito Flores as the inventor of the product that illuminated the world.
