History

In the year 1886, the chemist Carl Freiherr Auer von Welsbach discovered that a bright light could be generated by heating a knitted cotton fabric soaked in Thorium using coal gas flame. The light generated was brighter than the light generated by any other known source of light at that time. This was the moment when the Incandescent Mantle was born. In the year 1891, Carl Freiherr Auer von Welsbach discovered that this light could be boosted by adding Cerium to Thorium. A year later Deutsche Gasglühlicht Aktiengesellschaft was founded to produce Incandescent Mantles named ‘AUERLICHT’ on an industrial scale under the active co-operation of Carl Freiherr Auer von Welsbach. This company was the predecessor to the present day MSA AUER GmbH which is based at Berlin, Germany. MSA AUER GmbH manufactured Incandescent Mantles from 1892 until 2004. During the period from 1892 until 2004, MSA AUER GmbH manufactured in excess of a billion Incandescent Mantles constantly improving the quality. Since 2007, ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles are manufactured by us using the best developed technology and the most modern plant. The philosophy of manufacturing the best Incandescent Mantle continues at Indo Auerlicht Manufacturing Company. No other Incandescent Mantle can match the light generated by or the durability of ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles. Because of these two attributes, only ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles are used to generate light on more than ninety percent of the street gas lamps around the world.

Initially Incandescent Mantles were used only for street lighting. However, Incandescent Mantles soon made the first big contribution to industrialization towards the end of the last century by producing day light like illumination in factories and work shops facilitating work during night shifts. Incandescent Mantles soon found a wider application in domestic lighting, camping lighting, railway signal lighting and navigation signal lighting for ships. Basically, Incandescent Mantles were used to light up the world at that time!

Even today, in spite of the advances made in electrification, ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles are widely used for street lighting, camping lighting, railway signal lighting and navigation signal lighting for ships. The insides of many railway coaches as well as caravans are lit using ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles.

There were more than 100,000 street gas lamps on the streets of Berlin, Germany within ten years from Incandescent Mantles being invented. As of now more than 44,000 street gas lamps light up the various streets at Berlin, 15,000 street gas lamps light up various streets at Düsseldorf and 5,500 light up the various streets at Frankfurt. Street gas lamps can be found in various cities in many countries around the world. Quite a few streets in central London, the royal parks and the exterior of Buckingham Palace, the Covent Garden area, the Park Estate at Nottingham in United Kingdom, Warsaw in Poland, Prague in Czech Republic, Boston, Cinncinnati, Atlanta and various smaller towns in New Jersey, U.S.A., Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan have street gas lamps in use. Similarly street gas lamps can also be found in various cities and towns at France, Belgium, Netherlands, Hungary, Luxemburg, Croatia, Canada and the list can go on. All these street gas lamps using only ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles bring a whiff of nostalgia every evening to the streets of all these great cities and make lives more homely.

Street lighting with street gas lamps and ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles can easily measure up to other lighting installations with respect to the intensity of light generated and commercial economy. The environment friendly nature and high reliability of the entire system, low maintenance cost and last but not the least, the long service life of ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles are the contributing factors for this. The average life of an electric bulb is about 1,000 hours of operation whereas a ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Hard Mantle can be operated for more than 3,000 hours without any noticeable loss in the brightness of the light generated. In addition to all of this, street gas lamps with ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles contribute largely to the development of tourism by recreating history and adding to the aesthetic value of innumerable historical sites of tourist interest around the world. ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles are good for use with natural gas, hydrogen or town gas. Indeed ‘AUERLICHT’ goes a long way in giving a future to our glorious past!

‘‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles come with a number of unmatched advantages. ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles are good for use with natural/town gas, hydrogen gas or liquefied petroleum gas. ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles for street gas lamps are the only ones to generate light in excess of 400 lux / lumens when tested in accordance with specifications of DIN 5042 and last for more than 3,000 burnings hours without any noticeable drop in the brightness of the light generated. ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles are tested for light efficiency and mechanical strength ensuring that each and every piece is perfect. The packaging of ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantle is such that they can be transported by road, sea and or air to any place in the world without any damage.

The name of the inventor of Mantles, Carl Freiherr Auer von Welsbach figures prominently in the name of ‘AUERLICHT’ Incandescent Mantles which makes it an obligation for us to manufacture and supply only the best.