Illumination provided by electric currents. The devices used are the arc lamp, the light bulb (incandescent filament lamp), and the fluorescent tube. In the arc lamp, which is no longer used as a general means of illumination, an electric current flows through a gap between two carbon electrodes, between which a high potential difference is maintained. The current is carried by electrons and ions in the vapour produced by the electrodes and a mechanism is required to bring the electrodes closer together as they are vaporized. The device produces a strong white light but has many practical disadvantages. However, arcs enclosed in an inert gas (usually xenon) are increasingly used for such purposes as cinema projectors. The common light bulb is a glass bulb containing a tungsten filament and usually an inert gas. The passage of an electric current through the filament heats it to a white heat. Inert gas is used in the bulb to minimize blackening of the glass by evaporation of tungsten. In the fluorescent tube a glass tube containing mercury vapour (or some other gas) at a low pressure has its inner surface coated with a fluorescent substance. A discharge is created within the tube between two electrodes. Electrons emitted by the cathode collide with gas atoms or molecules and raise them to an excited state (see excitation). When they fall back to the ground state they emit photons of ultraviolet radiation, which is converted to visible light by the coating of phosphor on the inner walls of the tube. In some lamps, such as the sodium-vapour lamp and mercury-vapour lamp used in street lighting, no fluorescent substance is used, the light being emitted directly by the excited atoms of sodium or mercury. Vapour lights are more efficient than filament lights as less of the energy is converted into heat. At the present time, a great deal of effort is being devoted to finding materials that are more efficient at producing light than traditional light bulbs, i.e. to create light bulbs in which a higher proportion of electrical energy is converted into light rather than heat.