Where did the fluorescent lamp come from?

General Motors of the United States first introduced fluorescent lamps to the market in 1938. As early as 1900, some scientists in Europe and America found that some substances fluoresce when irradiated by ultraviolet rays. At that time, an American inventor named Peter Cooper Hewitt had developed a low-voltage mercury discharger. He tried various dyes to get white light instead of blue light. George Inman of General Motors later obtained a patent for mercury lamp, which can produce a lot of ultraviolet rays, thus producing fluorescence. In special sensitive materials such as silicate and tungstate, fluorescence can produce various shades of white light. During World War II, fluorescent lamps first appeared in Britain.