Marvin Pipkin

Marvin Pipkin (Nov. 18, 1889 - Jan. 7, 1977), American chemist and inventor of two processes for inside frosting of incandescent lamp bulbs.

Born near Lakeland, Florida, Pipkin attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute and received a Batchelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in 1913 and a Master's in 1915. In 1917 Pipkin enlisted in the US Army ^[1] and was assigned work on gas masks. His wartime work was at the General Electric Nela Park laboratory in Cleveland where he remained after the war.

In 1925 Pipkin developed a process for etching the inside of a lamp bulb with acid, using a two-step process so that the lamp would not be excessively weakened. In 1947 a silica coating process also invented by Pipkin replaced the etching. ^[2]

Pipkin retired back to Lakeland in 1954, and died of cancer in 1977.

Patents

• US patent 1687510, Marvin Pipkin, "Electric lamp bulb", issued 1928-10-16, assigned to General Electric Company 
• US patent 2545896, Marvin Pipkin, "Electric lamp, light diffusing coating therefor and method of manufacture", issued 1951-03-20, assigned to General Electric Company 

References

Pipkin biography retrieved 2006 June 27

1. ^ http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/memory/Collections/WWI/card.cfm?intOurDocID=21959 Marvin Pipkin's induction card retrieved March 21, 2008
2. ^ Incandescent Lamps, General Electric Technical Publication TP 110,Nela Park, 1964 page 3

External links

• Kenneth WIlcox Paine, A $10,000,000 Accident, Popular Science, August 1927 pp. 24-25, account of Pipkin's discovery for inside frosting of lamp bulbs]

Persondata
Name	Pipkin, Marvin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1889
Place of birth
Date of death	1977
Place of death