Two things I’ve been thinking a lot about are carbon and lights, so imagine my surprise when I stumbled across the Carbon Button Lamp, Tesla’s challenge to Edison’s patented incandescent lamp.

A Perkins-Mather spiral filament lamp from the 1880’s. Spark Museum.

I can’t find a picture of Tesla’s Carbon Button Lamp, but visit The Spark Museum page of beautiful early light bulbs, with blown-glass details and fanciful filament shapes. Catherine Wagner’s photographs of light bulbs are beautiful, but I also like reading about the bulbs and their re-purposed parts.