Incandescent Light Bulb The incandescent light bulb (archaically known as the electric lamp) uses a glowing wire filament heated to white-hot by electrical resistance, to generate light (a process known as thermal radiation or incandescence). The bulb is the glass enclosure which keeps the filament in a vacuum or low-pressure noble gas, or a halogen gas in the case of quartz-halogen lamps (see below) in order to prevent oxidisation of the filament at high temperatures. In Australia a light bulb is also called a light globe, but this term is not used elsewhere.
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL bulb) is a type of fluorescent lamp which screws into a regular light bulb socket, or plugs into a small lighting fixture.