Agapito flores filipino scientist biography

"Filipino Electrician Agapito Flores is NOT the Inventor of Fluorescent Lamp!"

Basically, when we were still in our elementary years, our teachers have taught us that a certain Filipino named Agapito Flores invented the fluorescent lamp that we are widely using today. This particular claim was written all over our science textbooks back then without any dispute.

And so as a result, we lived our entire life believing that the Filipino inventor did really invented the fluorescent lamp. We might even have shared this specific entitlement to our much younger generation for them to be able to experience the pride that we have experienced too.

But the fact is, Agapito Flores did not invent the fluorescent lamp. Although it is true that he created a fluorescent lamp all by himself and presented it to the late President Manuel Quezon, history dictates that he is not the first person to ever create the first fluorescent lamp.

According to this article entitled The History of Fluorescent Lights, a French physicist named Alexandre E. Becquerel investigated the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence and have made a conclusive theory on 1857 about fluorescent tubes.

His experiments involved coating electric discharge tubes with luminescent materials. This same process was later developed to be able to create the fluorescent lamps which are similar to our modern fluorescent lamps today.

Moreover, according to that same article, an American inventor and innovator named Peter Cooper Hewitt patented the first mercury vapor lamp in 1901 – U.S. patent 889,692. His invention, the low-pressure mercury arc lamp became the first ever prototype of the fluorescent lamps today.

On 1927, inventor Edmund Germer co-patented and experimental fluorescent lamp together with Friedrich Meyer and Hans Spanner. Some historians have also credited Edmund Germer to be, perhaps, the true inventor of the first fluorescent lamp.

No one knows who initially proposed the notion that Agapito Flores, a Filipino electrician who lived and worked in the early 20th century, invented the first fluorescent lamp. In spite of evidence that disproves the claim, the controversy has raged for years. Some proponents of the tale have gone so far as to suggest that the word "fluorescent" was derived from Flores' last name, but considering the verifiable history of fluorescence and the subsequent development of fluorescent lighting, it's clear that the assertions are false.

The Origin of Fluorescence

While fluorescence had been observed by many scientists as far back as the 16th century, it was Irish physicist and mathematician George Gabriel Stokes who finally explained the phenomenon in 1852. In his paper on the wavelength properties of light, Stokes described how uranium glass and the mineral fluorspar could transform invisible ultra-violet light into visible light of greater wavelengths. He referred to this phenomenon as "dispersive reflection," but wrote:

“I confess that I do not like this term. I am almost inclined to coin a word, and call the appearance  'fluorescence'  from fluor-spar, as the analogous term opalescence is derived from the name of a mineral.”

In 1857, the French physicist Alexandre E. Becquerel, who had investigated both fluorescence and phosphorescence, theorized about the construction of fluorescent tubes similar to those still used today.

Let There Be Light

On May 19, 1896, about 40 years after Becquerel postulated his light-tube theories, Thomas Edison filed a patent for a fluorescent lamp. In 1906, he filed a second application, and finally, on September 10, 1907, he was granted a patent. Unfortunately, instead of utilizing ultraviolet light, Edison's lamps employed X-rays, which is likely the reason his company never produced the lamps commercially. Af

FlipFact of the Day: Agapito Flores did NOT invent the fluorescent lamp.

Despite what your old science textbook may have told you, Agapito Flores wasn’t the bright mind behind the fluorescent lamp.

An English mathematician-physicist named George Gabriel Stokes coined the term “fluorescence” (a combination of “fluor-spar” or calcium flouride and “escence,” presumably from “opalescence”) in 1852. Meanwhile, French physicist Alexandre E. Becquerel first experimented with manmade fluorescent light sources in 1857. Eventually, American inventor Peter Cooper Hewitt patented the first mercury vapor lamp — the granddaddy of today’s fluorescent lights — in 1901.

As for Flores himself, some doubt that he even existed. Meanwhile, others claim that September 28, 1897 was the day he was born. Some also say it was the day he had his “lightbulb moment,” so to speak. No matter what the truth is about Flores’ existence, though, one thing is certain: He didn’t invent the fluorescent lamp.

Read about other stories of Pinoy ingenuity that are merely “inventions” of the imagination here.

Today’s Science History Milestone: On September 28, 1928, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming took note of mold spores killing pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria in a Petri dish in his laboratory. The mold he found was 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘮, and from it was extracted what many regard as the modern world’s first antibiotic, benzylpenicillin (penicillin G, or simply penicillin).

Still remember your 5th-grade science classes? Test your knowledge and see if you still remember these facts and fundamental concepts in human anatomy, biology, botany, and other branches of science. Click here to try the “Are You Smarter Than A Pinoy Fifth-Grader” Challenge.

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