to 3600 degrees Celsius, just below its melting point), causing it to glow very brightly with incandescence. Due to this, the electrodes were often placed at right angles from each other with the anode facing outward to keep from blocking its light output. Since carbon has the highest melting point of any element, it is the only lamp whose blackbody radiation is capable of nearly matching the Sun's temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5500 degrees Celsius), especially when filters are used to remove most of the IR and UV light.

History