FOREWORD

As a young teenager, I was crazy about chemistry and with my 

student pass on Cleveland’s public transportation system I was 
able to visit any place in town, including the Chemical Rubber 
Company’s retail outlet. While purchasing chemicals for my 
own use I noticed a CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics on 
sale for $0.25. It was a defective copy but the clerk mentioned 
that the missing pages might be available from the gentleman 
whose office was up one flight of stairs. There, I met Charles D. 
Hodgman, the CRC Handbook’s Editor-in-Chief. In addition to 
getting the missing pages, I also received some rare and welcome 
encouragement toward a career in chemistry. I enjoyed repeating 
that sort of experience several more times when obtaining CRC 
Handbooks for friends. 

After that I always had my CRC Handbook with me in my book 

bag as I traveled around Cleveland. After high school I proceeded 
to college where I studied chemical engineering (though I later 
dropped out due to boredom). Nevertheless, during World War II 
I served as a chemist in the U.S. Army Ordnance Bomb Disposal 
School’s research and development unit. With little to do as a 
chemist while I was there, I was able to pick up a practical educa-
tion in machine shop techniques.

At the time I was discharged from the Army, I was married 

and had a family to support.  Happily, I was able to put my army 
shop experience to use by hiring on as a machinist for the “Welds 
Works” of the Lamp Division of General Electric. I had the op-
portunity in that position to develop several exotic “welds,” mass 
packaging machines. 

After about four years of quite interesting and educational ser-

vice, I was extremely fortunate to receive a recommendation that 
promoted me to the professional staff of the Lamp Development 
Laboratory. It was there that I was assigned to a group working on 
the development of the quartz heat lamp. While working there, I 
happened to read about the van Arkel cycle that involved a regen-
erative iodine cycle in a metal purification system. This knowledge, 
coupled with my familiarity with the CRC Handbook, enabled me 
to see a new possible application for that process. 

This is essentially the story of my invention of the quartz halo-

gen lamp, the incandescent lamp that does not blacken. It is still 
my hope that an A-line type, quartz halogen lamp will become the 
lamp of choice where compact fluorescent lamps are not suitable.

In my attempt to extend the halogen cycle principle to arc lamps 

my CRC Handbook really got a workout. The search led to the use 
of indium iodide in an arc at moderate pressure, producing a bril-
liant white light. This is the principle employed in the Marc300 
Lamp. The Marc Lamp was designed for use in 16mm movie pro-
jectors, now passé, but it is possibly the first example of a useful, 
continuous radiation, molecular arc lamp.

Although now long retired, I still refer frequently to the CRC 

Handbook. If you would accompany me on a Friday night you 
would probably find me discussing lamps with friends, a CRC 
Handbook within arm’s reach.

Elmer G. Fridrich

January 2008