11 Points You Should Know About the LED Technology History

Before a scrolling LED sign can prep up your retail store, the technology used for it has traveled long enough to be what it is today. Lighting fixtures and other LED applications were years in the making.

Let us all together look back at the journey of one of the best energy savers, the LED technology.

It was in 1907 when the term Electroluminscence was coined by scientists. This name was given for the crystals used in radio receivers that emit light when electricity passes through them.

In 1927, a Russian inventor creates the very first LED using only a thin wire and a crystal semiconductor. Though his effort paved the way for bigger leaps in further developing the technology, it failed at that time. The light produced by the LED was too dim to be utilized.

A bulb was born in 1962. Nick Holonyak Jr. of General Electric (GE) created the first LED bulb bright enough to be used. Holonyak is now known as the Father of the LED.The following year, Holonyak was featured in Reader’s Digest. It was in February of 1963 when the Fathe of the LED predicted that his invention will someday replace Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulbs

In 1968, the LED technology was started to be used for commercial purposes. Hewlett Packard calculators, TVs, radios and watches are some of the equipment utilized the LED early on.

Green and yellow LEDs were created by scientist M.George Craford in 1972. To do so, he made use of a different crystal semiconductor. Producing a white LED was pretty much impossible at this time with the absence of a blue LED light.

The LED technology gained prominence in the 1980’s. At this time, scientists were able to produce red, yellow, green and orange LEDs that are up to 10 times brighter than its predecessors. The said technology became a household lighting solution for different applications.

It was in 1989 when LED traffic lights began gracing our roads. Raymond Deese invented this innovative road guide as we know it today. However, Deese’s LED traffic lights gained much following only after the energy crisis. A massive conversion of traffic lights to its LED counter parts happened thereafter.

1993 marked the LED revolution with much advancement that took place. The first high-brightness LED blue LED was created in this year. Also, the LED technology moved from being used solely for minor applications to being a viable lighting source.

The first LED flashlight hit the market in 2001. This source of portable lighting provides brighter light and generally lasts longer than incandescent variants.

The United States, together with other countries including Brazil, Venezuela, Switzerland, Australia, Argentina, Russia, Canada, Malaysia and the European Union started embracing the big switch to LED lighting in 2007. This is in line with their plan to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2014.

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