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The success story of the incandescent lamp began in 1879 with a carbon filament lamp by Thomas A. Edison. In 1889 the chemist C. Auer von Welsbach made the proposal to provide the lamps with metal threads. A drawn tantalum wire was first used in 1903. Tungsten wire became established around 1910, after a processing method for tungsten was developed. Until then, the glass pistons were empty of air. Around 1910 the American Langmuir suggested filling the glass flasks with neutral gas and using the coiled wire. Today the light bulb (metal filament lamp) is a light source in which electric current heats a filament up to white heat. The incandescent lamp has a glass bulb that is empty of air or filled with neutral gases (krypton, argon xenon or argon-nitrogen mixture). The filament consists mostly of tungsten, sometimes osmium, graphite (carbon filament lamp) or tantalum. The metal filaments are usually helical (single or double helix). So-called general purpose lamps are usually equipped with screw sockets (Edison thread) and are manufactured for power consumption from 15 to 2000 watts. The average life of a light bulb is about 1000 hours. Special light bulbs, for example for projectors, usually have a shorter service life. Bilux or twin filament lamps for motor vehicles contain two filaments: one for main beam (at the focal point of the headlamp) and one for dipped beam (with reflector in front).