110 volts × 0.09 + ampere = 10 watts.
Since 10-watt lamps are the smallest units that may be used on 110-volt circuits, their employment in smaller sizes must be such as will give more stable filaments. This is possible when the lamps are used at lower voltage. A 10-watt lamp on a 10-volt circuit will require an ampere of current.
10 volts × 1 ampere = 10 watts.
A filament suitable for an ampere of current is shorter and heavier than that of the 110-volt lamp and therefore furnishes a good form of construction. Still lower voltages may be used with filaments suited to the quantity of light desired.
In the case of battery lamps that are intended to operate on 1 or more volts, the filaments are made in size and length to suit the condition of action. In all cases the product of the volts and amperes give the capacity of the lamp in watts.
Miniature lamps are ordinarily marked to show the voltage on which they are intended to operate. A 6-volt battery lamp is intended to be used with a primary battery of four to six cells depending on the condition of usage, or three cells of storage battery, each cell of which gives 2 volts of pressure.
Flash Lights.
—These are portable electric lamps composed of a miniature incandescent bulb, which with one or more dry cells are enclosed in a frame to suit the purpose of their use. They are made in pocket sizes or in form to be conveniently carried in the hand and are convenient and efficient lamps wherever a small amount of light is required for a short time. The electricity for operating the lamp is supplied by a battery of dry cells (to be described later), or by a single dry cell. In each case the incandescent bulb is suited to the voltage of the battery.
In replacing the bulbs care must be taken to see that the voltage is that suited to the battery. The voltage is usually stamped on the lamp base or marked on the bulb. In case a lamp intended for a single cell is used with a battery of three or four cells, the lamp filament will soon be destroyed. The reverse will be true should a lamp intended for a battery be used with a single cell. The single cell giving not much more than a volt of electromotive force will not send sufficient current through the lamp filament to render it incandescent.