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Management for Professionals

Carlos Cordon
Pau Garcia-Milà
Teresa Ferreiro Vilarino
Pablo Caballero

Strategy is
Digital
How Companies Can Use
Big Data in the Value Chain
Management for Professionals
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10101
Carlos Cordon • Pau Garcia-Milà
Teresa Ferreiro Vilarino • Pablo Caballero

Strategy is Digital
How Companies Can Use Big Data
in the Value Chain
Carlos Cordon Pau Garcia-Milà
IMD Valldoreix
Lausanne, Switzerland Spain

Teresa Ferreiro Vilarino Pablo Caballero

Barcelona, Spain Accenture
Sant Cugat del Vallès
Spain

ISSN 2192-8096 ISSN 2192-810X (electronic)

Management for Professionals
ISBN 978-3-319-31131-9 ISBN 978-3-319-31132-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31132-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939981

# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
Acknowledgements

The ideas of this book were developed with the help of Polina Bochukova and Jan
Jelle van der Meer. They are the authors of Chap. 3, and they provided many
insights for the other chapters.

v
ThiS is a FM Blank Page
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Big Data Is Transforming Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 This Book Is About Big Data and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 What Is Big Data? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Discovering Big Data in Existing Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 How This Book Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 From Digital Strategy to Strategy Is Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Evolution of Digital in the Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 The Omnichannel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.2 After the Omnichannel, the Omnichain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.3 Digital Fusion in the Consumer Experience . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1.4 Adapting to Digital Fusion: The LEGO Experience . . . . . 12
2.1.5 How Big Data Will Impact Traditional Businesses . . . . . . 16
2.2 Designing a Digital Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.1 The Evolution of Corporate Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.2 The Business Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3 A New Framework for Developing Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.1 Developing a Portfolio of Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.2 The Dilemma of Integration Versus Experimentation
and Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3.3 Potential Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.3.4 New Thinking to Create New Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4 The Example of LEGO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.5 Deciding on the Best Strategy for Your Company . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5.1 The Digital Fit: No Need for a Digital Strategy . . . . . . . . 30
2.5.2 The Digital Masterplan: Digital Strategy as Part
of the Corporate Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.5.3 Digital DNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

vii
viii Contents

3 Serialization in the Pharmaceutical Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

3.1 Pharmaceutical Industry Supply Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.2 The Risk of Counterfeit Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.3 What Is Serialization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.4 Authentication and Track-and-Trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.5 Adopting a Global Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.6 The Example of Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.7 Mediq: A Leader in Value Chain Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.7.1 Changes in Dutch Legislation Focused on Reducing
“HARM” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.7.2 The Pre-2012 Dutch Pharmaceutical Pricing Model . . . . . 56
3.7.3 The 2012 Dutch Pharmaceutical Price Deregulation . . . . . 57
3.7.4 Mediq’s Business Model Transformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.7.5 Mediq’s Triple Value Patient-Centric Concept . . . . . . . . . 58
3.7.6 Mediq in Action: A Patient Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.7.7 Distribution Redesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.7.8 Future Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.8 Market Opportunity for Big Data in Healthcare in the US . . . . . . 61
3.9 Value-Based Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.10 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4 The Customer Chain: The Omnichannel and the Omnichain . . . . . . 65
4.1 The Changing Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.1.1 Traditional Versus Current Value Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.1.2 The Omnichannel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.1.3 The Market of One: Personalized Marketing in the
Omnichannel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2 The Omnichain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2.1 An Example from the Pharmaceutical Industry . . . . . . . . 71
4.3 Drivers and Dilemmas of the Evolution Toward
the Omnichain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.3.1 Key Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.3.2 Open Dilemmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.4 The Impact of Big Data on the Value Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.4.1 Frenemies with Everybody: Minecraft, LEGO and
Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.4.2 The Internet of Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.4.3 Big Data and the Digital Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.5 Is the Future Evolutive or Disruptive? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.5.1 Evolutive-2001: A Space Odyssey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.5.2 Disruptive: Blade Runner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Contents ix

5 Bikes or Drones to the Consumer: The Logistical Challenge

of the Last Mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.1 Changes in the Logistics Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.2 Yamato: The Traditional Logistics Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.3 The Fabulous Business of the Last Mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.3.1 The Rise of the Last Mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3.2 The Need for Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.4 The Money in the Last-Mile Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.5 Traditional Versus New Last-Mile Business Models:
Big Data Challenges and Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.5.1 Big Data in the Traditional Industry Last Mile . . . . . . . . . 92
5.5.2 The Last Mile in the 2001: A Space Odyssey Future . . . . 93
5.5.3 The Last Mile in the Blade Runner Future . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.6 Big Data: The Science-Fiction Future of the Last-Mile Battle . . . 95
5.6.1 Anticipating Consumer Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.6.2 New Entrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6 New Business Models: Rocket Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.1 Understanding the Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.2 Four Steps to Adapt to the Changing Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.2.1 WHY: Defining the Company’s Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.2.2 HOW: Visualizing the Company’s Ecosystem . . . . . . . . . 105
6.2.3 WHAT: Finding the Best Profit Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.2.4 Executing the Strategy Using Lean Startup . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7.1 The Big Impact of Big Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.2 All Companies Are Affected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.3 The Challenge Is to Adapt to a Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.4 The Technology Behind Big Data Is Constantly Evolving . . . . . . 141
7.5 Adopting Big Data Requires Unlearning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.6 This Book Is a Roadmap to Big Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.7 A New Exciting World Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Introduction
1

Big data is transforming everything. Consumers evolve and become much more
proactive in their shopping journey. They check many websites and compare prices
before they buy. In addition, technology is allowing us to extract knowledge from
data that we could not utilize up until know. Furthermore, the Internet of Things,
which refers to the data generated by physical devices connected to the web, is
generating a huge amount of information that did not exist before. Companies need
to adapt to the new reality to be able to compete. Big data is crucial not only for
Internet-based businesses but also for traditional companies. Throughout this book,
we explain how conventional businesses can seize the opportunities created by big
data and embrace their own big data journey.

# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 1

C. Cordon et al., Strategy is Digital, Management for Professionals,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31132-6_1
2 1 Introduction

1.1 Big Data Is Transforming Everything

Customers are evolving. In 2014 several reports indicated that more than 25 % of all
Internet connections were made using mobile devices. This means that soon (if it is
not already the case), more than half the visits to companies’ websites will be via
mobile phones. In fact, an Ofcom report published on August 6, 2015 stated that in
the UK, “smartphones have overtaken laptops as the most popular device for
getting online,” as shown in Fig. 1.1 (Ofcom 2015).
This aspect of the big data revolution is just one of many affecting companies
today. How does your company’s website look on a mobile phone? Google penalizes
websites that are not well adapted to mobiles by eliminating them from search results.
But even if it is well adapted and provides a version easily readable on mobile phones
and other devices, that will still not be enough to keep customers engaged.
Today’s consumers are a lot more proactive in their shopping journeys. They
consult companies’ websites for information about products and where to buy them,
they compare prices and consult forums for product reviews, and they do all this
before even entering a store. In the shop they might use their devices to look up
additional information, and if they cannot find what they are looking for, they may
give up and go elsewhere.
Thus, a responsive website that adapts fonts, photographs and the visual layout
automatically to the mobile screen will not in itself be sufficient to retain a
customer’s attention; sales will not grow and time-per-session using mobile phones
will fall disastrously compared to time-per-session using personal computers.
The good news is that big data can fix this. A lot of information can be gleaned
from users when they access a website. Analyzing this information will reveal the

Fig. 1.1 Most important device for connecting to the Internet in the UK in Q1, 2015. Source:
Ofcom Technology Tracker, Q1 2015
1.2 This Book Is About Big Data and Business 3

type of user and, for example, whether they are potential customers, investors,
suppliers or just your mother looking for your office phone number.
How can all this be known? Let’s take a look at what information can be
collected from website visitors. It is possible to know what browser they are
using and the operating system and screen resolution of their device. The IP address
gives an idea about their geographical location. This information can be used to
offer different products or information based on estimated purchasing power and
statistics on the spending patterns of similar users.
There is one more thing that is important to understand about how users employ
mobile phones when surfing the Internet. Mobile browsing brings with it constant
interruptions, which can lead to poor concentration. Imagine you go to the office
and a person you want to talk to is looking carefully at a website on their desktop
computer. You stick your head between them and the screen and start yelling: “Stop
reading right now because I want to talk to you.” Does this seem odd? Well, that is
exactly what happens when someone is deciding whether to buy a product from a
website they accessed on their mobile phone and an incoming call interrupts them.
The website suddenly disappears and the phone starts ringing, effectively telling the
user to stop reading and answer the call.
This is a reality that consumers experience daily. To survive in this environment,
companies need to prepare and adapt to what the market is demanding or risk losing
sales, clients and precious leads.
The implications of big data go much deeper than changing consumer habits,
however. Companies are evolving too. Some companies have reinvented their
business model to survive. They have transformed who they are, what they do
and why they do it. Obviously, not all businesses will see their ecosystems equally
affected or need to reinvent themselves. But they will all have to understand where
they stand and the extent of the big data impact around them in order to decide what
direction to take and act accordingly.

1.2 This Book Is About Big Data and Business

Many of these changes have taken companies by surprise. Something that was seen
as only affecting internet-based businesses like Google, Amazon, Facebook and
Apple is now spreading and affecting all companies, including those created long
before Google or Facebook were founded.
We started our research on big data and its impact on businesses because several
top executives asked us to do so. Those executives could see that big data presented
a huge opportunity. In fact, the results of several CEO surveys have highlighted big
data as the top hot topic in the last years. Surprisingly, though, while CEOs can
foresee the huge impact, many of their management teams and direct reports are
simply choosing to ignore it.
Our objective with this book is to present our findings on how traditional
companies—from toy manufacturers through logistics providers to pharmacy
retailers and chemical companies—are seizing the opportunities created by big
4 1 Introduction

data. We also explain how these companies are navigating the big data journey and
how other organizations can learn from them.

1.3 What Is Big Data?

Imagine if your mobile phone were to record every single place you had been, every
second of the day, over several years. This would amount to a substantial amount of
information. That is big data—a colossal volume of knowledge collected by all
kinds of devices.
Wikipedia, probably the most-used knowledge resource, defines it thus: “Big
data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing
applications are inadequate” (Wikipedia n.d.). Figure 1.2 illustrates well what most
people understand by big data.
Gartner, the company that introduced the term big data, defined it as “high-
volume, -velocity and -variety information assets that demand cost-effective,

Fig. 1.2 Big data as defined by Wipro. Source: Survey by EIU/Wipro, 2013
1.4 Discovering Big Data in Existing Businesses 5

innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision

making” (Gartner n.d.). This definition, with its three Vs, quickly became the
standard definition. Later on, the fourth and fifth Vs, veracity and value—which
many experts claim are the most relevant—were added. Because if the data is
incorrect or useless, what would be the point in collecting it? The patterns revealed
by analyzing big data, and a company’s ability to take decisions based on those
insights, are what give big data its value.
Some experts also talk about “dark data,” which refers to information that cannot
be exploited or used because there are no tools able to do so. However, as
technology evolves, this “dark data” is being turned into information that can be
used. Take the example of videos on YouTube. Until recently nobody would have
dreamt of using computers to analyze their content. Today, several companies have
computers “watching” every single TV channel and identifying how many seconds
each brand is shown in adverts and movies. That would have been unthinkable just
a few years ago.
The volume of data is now growing more dramatically than ever with the
popularity of smartphones, wearable devices and the Internet of Things (IoT),
which refers to the data generated by physical devices that are connected to and
accessed through the web. The adoption of smartphones by the general public took
off in 2009. Their use constantly generates all kinds of data. This, combined with
the expansion of social media and the ease of posting and sharing content on the
web directly from a smartphone, has further accelerated the growth of big data.
In 2010 the IoT gained momentum and within a year it was producing roughly as
much data as all personal devices. Where did the IoT come from? Why then?
According to Cisco, the IoT was born around 2008 or 2009, the inflexion point at
which the number of gadgets connected to the network exceeded the number of
people on earth (Evans 2011). While in 2010 there were 500 million devices
connected, or 1.84 connected devices per person, predictions indicate that by
2020 there will be 50 billion devices connected, or 6.58 per person.
Thus, big data is just a huge amount of data and we have now reached the tipping
point at which it can be used meaningfully and exploited to change the way we do
business.

1.4 Discovering Big Data in Existing Businesses

When we began our research on how big data was changing existing businesses we
expected a few surprises. We did not anticipate so many and such vast changes. We
sought out companies with interesting initiatives but found only a few: LEGO, the
toy company; Mediq, a Dutch healthcare company; some pharmaceutical
companies; a few logistics companies; some insurance companies; a US grocery
and pharmacy retailer; and even a company that uses space rockets to conduct
scientific research. We also found that in 2014 a Hong Kong venture capital fund
appointed a computer program as one of its board members, to make investment
recommendations just like any other member (Wile 2014). It was the first time a
6 1 Introduction

robot had held such a highly qualified position. Until then, robots had only been
assigned low-level tasks. We further discovered that a lot of companies should have
been implementing big data initiatives but were just waiting for the tsunami to
catch them.
The biggest surprise was among the pharmaceutical companies. In Chap. 3 we
explain how a law aimed at eliminating the trade of counterfeit drugs is forcing
pharmaceutical companies to join an initiative that is essentially a big data journey.
It could be a great opportunity for these organizations to dramatically improve the
way they do business, but the reality is that most are just trying to comply with new
regulations and are not planning to use this as an opportunity to create more value.
One exception is Mediq, which used the opportunity to redefine its business as
“taking care of patients” instead of just “moving boxes,” and making money from
minimizing the number of hospitalizations resulting from inappropriate drug use. It
is quite astonishing that it has been able to use big data to contribute to improving
the health of its clients while at the same time increasing its revenue.
The biggest surprise, though, was discovering that in many sports, big data is
considered essential to win. For example, the most successful swimming coach in
terms of the number of Olympic gold medals won by his coachees claims that the
difference between qualifying and winning a gold medal is big data. It is amazing to
think that winning a global swimming competition could depend on statistics.

1.5 How This Book Is Organized

This book compiles all that we have learned over 2 years of research. Our objective
was to find successful stories of early adopters to gain a glimpse of the future. The
book aims to lead you through the big data journey and help your company embrace
the change. It is about the stories, the tools and the frameworks that you will need on
the way.
In Chap. 2 we use the example of LEGO to describe how companies’ strategies
and business models are changing as a result of big data. We provide several tools
and frameworks to help you to redefine your strategy and embed big data in it.
Chapter 3 looks into how legal requirements to trace medical drugs at every
stage—from manufacture to delivery to patients—have pushed pharmaceutical
companies to initiate their big data journeys. Many of them are just fulfilling their
obligations without taking advantage of big data capabilities. We look in detail at
Mediq, which, unlike most, transformed itself to integrate big data into its business,
increasing its profitability to twice that of its peers. These changes are impacting the
whole value chain.
In Chap. 4 we explain a new concept that describes a different kind of value
chain made possible by big data and that is a logical response to omnichannel
consumerism: the omnichain. Big data makes it possible to design much more
complex value chains that are managed intelligently and autonomously and that
interact with all the other players in the value chain, exchanging places and roles
1.6 How to Use This Book 7

when convenient. The chapter brims with examples the show how omnichains are
going to revolutionize global value chains.
Chapter 5 explores the world of logistics and transportation. The massive rise in
the volume of e-commerce is creating a huge challenge as well as many
opportunities in the way logistics are managed to deliver quickly while reducing
costs. On the one hand, traditional players like Yamato Logistics have to rely on big
data to survive. On the other hand, new players from different industries are
leveraging their big data know-how to enter an industry that, up until now, was
only accessible to a few. The chapter describes the challenges and opportunities in
this section of the value chain.
Chapter 6 helps you take the next steps in your own big data journey using a new
framework to transform your company and adapt it to the big data era. It combines
four existing methodologies that differ greatly from traditional ones. Five-year
business plans are a thing of the past. Big data implies constantly innovating,
testing, exchanging information and learning in an endless cycle. We explain
how that works. Furthermore, traditional industry analyses are ill equipped for
navigating blurry industry boundaries where everybody competes with everybody,
so we provide a proven framework to help manage this.
In Chap. 7 we conclude by summarizing the key learnings and implications of
big data for businesses.

1.6 How to Use This Book

The book can be used in many ways. You can read it from beginning to end. Or, if
you are short of time, you could just read the parts most relevant to your needs.
Table 1.1 summarizes what to read depending on the time at your disposal and your
particular interests.
Every chapter is intended to be self-contained and can be read independently of
the others. This inevitably means that you will find some repetition should you read
the entire book in one go. We ask for your forgiveness if that is the case.
Whether you read the whole book or just parts of it, we hope you find it useful as
you embark on your own big data journey.
Finally, we are all learning continuously, and in this era of collaboration, we
encourage you to share your journey with other organizations in your ecosystem.

Table 1.1 How to read this book

Time at your disposal/Area of interest Suggested reading
No time Chapters 1 and 7
Very little time Chapters 1, 2, 6 and 7
Interested in the healthcare industry? Chapter 3
Interested in supply chain evolutions? Chapter 4
Interested in logistics and e-commerce? Chapter 5
8 1 Introduction

References
Evans, Dave. The Internet of Things. How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing
Everything. Cisco IBSG, April 2011. http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/innov/IoT_
IBSG_0411FINAL.pdf. Accessed August 13, 2015.
Gartner IT Glossary. http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/big-data. Accessed August 13, 2015.
Ofcom. 2015. The communications market 2015. The Market in Context. http://stakeholders.
ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/cmr/cmr15/UK_1.pdf. Accessed August 13, 2015.
Wikipedia. N.d. Big Data. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data. Accessed August 13, 2015.
Wile, Rob. 2014. A venture capital firm just named an algorithm to its board of directors—Here’s
what it actually does. Business Insider. May 13. http://www.businessinsider.com/vital-named-
to-board-2014-5. Accessed August 13, 2015.
From Digital Strategy to Strategy Is Digital
2

2.1 Evolution of Digital in the Enterprise

The tsunami-like smartphone revolution has fundamentally reshaped consumer

behavior. It has caught retailers by surprise by bringing changes that were unfore-
seeable just a few years ago. This in turn is affecting value chains, which are
becoming much more agile. And some organizations are adapting their products to
incorporate digital features into traditionally physical experiences. All of these
shifts are a result of big data.

2.1.1 The Omnichannel

Today’s consumers use multiple channels and sources to decide which products
they want and where to buy them. For example, instead of spending their Saturday

# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 9

C. Cordon et al., Strategy is Digital, Management for Professionals,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31132-6_2
10 2 From Digital Strategy to Strategy Is Digital

in shops looking to see what is available and comparing prices, they might start by
checking a product’s website, consulting forums or Facebook for consumer
reviews. If they decide to buy it, they search on Internet for the best price and
place to buy it, either online or onsite. This by no means suggests that physical
shops are no longer important. Two-thirds of consumers who buy online visit stores
beforehand or afterward (ATKearney 2014). From the customer viewpoint, the
apps, the physical store and the website are all part of the same purchasing
experience. Recent research revealed that 42 % of shoppers search for information
on the Internet while in the store, and 71 % of those who do so say that their device
has become more important to their in-store experience (Think with Google 2014).
This is equally valid for car buyers. Research reveals that consumers go through
five stages on the path to purchasing a vehicle, and digital plays an important role at
each stage. Most of the journey—filtering and assessing options—is completed
online. Usually they only visit the dealership at the end (Microsoft 2012).
The result of adapting the distribution channel to these new behaviors is the
omnichannel. Companies are developing new strategies to engage with their
consumers, offering them a consistent, seamless experience across all channels.
Retailers, for example, can use their online presence—website, apps, mobile ads
and search results—to assist customers in the store and improve their experience.
These fundamental changes were made possible as a result of big data and, more
specifically, the ability of modern technology to take advantage of it.

2.1.2 After the Omnichannel, the Omnichain

Just as marketing and sales are experiencing major evolutions as a result of the big
data revolution, so are value chains being radically transformed as they adapt to this
new situation. Value chains used to be designed around physical constraints that
assumed limited access to information about products and their location. They had
to be planned in a consolidated way, with large-scale production based on huge
orders because of limited computer power and access to data. Thus companies
traditionally made large batches of a product, say a shirt with red buttons, and then
tried to sell these on. Now they increasingly produce on demand and build value
chains based on the specific needs of customers as the big data revolution is
transforming value chains into omnichains capable of designing, producing,
planning and delivering products and services for small orders.
An omnichain is an ecosystem in which companies interact to complement each
other’s capabilities in view of delivering a product or service to the customer. Any
player within the ecosystem can change and assume new positions fast. For
example, it might be that for one product, company A does the dyeing and company
B the manufacturing and assembly, while for another product company A does the
dyeing and manufacturing and company B assembles the final item (see Fig. 2.1).
Omnichain activities are allocated within the ecosystem dynamically. The actor
orchestrating the value chain picks the best combination of suppliers of goods
and/or service in each case. Founded over a century ago, Hong-Kong-based
2.1 Evolution of Digital in the Enterprise 11

Fig. 2.1 Dynamic value chain

multinational Li & Fung has been doing this for decades. Its customers, which
include companies like Walmart, come to it to buy products with a value chain
spread across Asia. Li & Fung creates a customized supply chain for each product
by selecting, managing and coordinating a network of suppliers that will make it
according to the customer’s specific requirements. So for example, if company A
wants shirts with red buttons, Li & Fung will select the fabric supplier, the red
button supplier, the manufacturer, the distributor and so forth. If at some point the
customer requests the same shirt but with blue buttons, Li & Fung will adapt the
chain to accommodate this.
Omnichains are modular, which means that parts can be handled independently,
making it easy to reconfigure the chain swiftly. A company can create its own
omnichain by selecting the members of its ecosystem and assigning tasks in the best
way to achieve the desired revenue, risk profile or time-to-market. Digitalization
and big data are making this possible on a much greater scale. What’s more, as the
Mediq example illustrates, more sophisticated value propositions combining
products and services are being developed.

Mediq is a Dutch healthcare company (see Chap. 3) that used to simply buy
products from manufacturers and distribute them to pharmacies or directly to
people at home. Its main activity was “moving boxes” from one place to
another. Now, using big data, Mediq has transformed its value chain to
“taking care of the patient.” It collects data from its customers and uses it
to help improve patients’ health by advising them about their treatments (for
example when to take their medicine) and informing doctors about comple-
mentary treatments, such as a stomach protection to take with anti-

(continued)
12 2 From Digital Strategy to Strategy Is Digital

inflammatories for example. Its new business model has brought down the
number of patients needing hospitalization as a result of inadequate use of
their medication, which in turn has reduced the costs of medical insurance
companies. Mediq was able to demonstrate and quantify such savings and
agreed with insurance companies to share those benefits 50:50. Mediq is thus
playing a much more encompassing role in the value chain.

2.1.3 Digital Fusion in the Consumer Experience

One thing triggering these transformations is the evolution of the consumer profile.
Many consumers, especially younger ones, now combine digital and physical
worlds in the same experience (playing games, shopping). For them, the virtual
and physical worlds are naturally integrated as part of the same reality.
The toy industry has adapted to this evolution. In order to fit into this new
landscape and keep their young consumers engaged, toy companies have developed
new lines of products. LEGO created LEGO Fusion, a set of games that merge
physical and digital realities. Users first download a LEGO app to their smartphone
or tablet and purchase the physical LEGO fusion kit. Users then build a physical
object using their kit. They capture this design using their smartphone or tablet and
make it come to life using their smart device to accomplish game missions. At any
time the user can go back and adapt or rebuild the physical object to continuously
shape their experience according to their own imagination (see Fig. 2.2).
The implications of digital fusion are far from trivial. A time will likely come
when users will no longer be interested in the physical experience alone because it
will be incomplete. To survive, some companies will have to review their mission
and strategy and adapt to the new reality.

2.1.4 Adapting to Digital Fusion: The LEGO Experience

2.1.4.1 Big Data to Interact with Consumers

When it comes to relationships with end users, most companies in the toy industry
have built a powerful social media presence. Their goal is to offer users a consistent
experience across all channels, a challenge in itself mainly for two reasons. First,
social media are dynamic and quickly become outmoded—some of the most
successful networks 5 years ago are now just a distant memory. Second, these
companies have so many products that creating a specific digital experience for
each product results in a fragmented overall experience for the user, something to
be avoided because fragmentation also often implies that the information collected
by each unit is not shared with the rest of the company.
2.1 Evolution of Digital in the Enterprise 13

Fig. 2.2 LEGO (n.d.) fusion

14 2 From Digital Strategy to Strategy Is Digital

To avoid fragmentation and ensure data could be shared, LEGO designed its
ecosystem to combine all its digital consumer platforms into a single experi-
ence for users. It was conceived to be beneficial both for the consumer and the
company. Consumers would benefit from a richer experience because they
could connect all the dots of their LEGO world. The company would benefit
from the centralized information about each user and an improved database
that made it easier to handle the consumer data. It was expected that as a
result, LEGO’s consumers would be happier, meaning they would be closer
and more loyal to the brand.

2.1.4.2 Big Data for More Effective Marketing

Big data provides detailed information that allows companies to understand
consumers and their behaviors much better and thus micro-segment and target
them more effectively. Up until recently, companies knew more or less who their
clients were, where to find them and how to reach them, but the error margin was
high as they relied on information collected from a sample of volunteers who
agreed to have a device installed at home to report what was being watched on
television. Companies usually ended up extending their target groups to make sure
they reached their real audience. Not only were the costs high but also the TV
commercials were not necessarily watched by their target audience. Cable and
digital media made it possible to know who was watching what and when, so the
whole audience—not just a sample—could be tracked all of the time. Companies
could thus devise accurate and micro-segmented campaigns aimed at specific
groups of consumers, which was a great deal more effective and considerably
cheaper. This micromarketing of products or services to a small segment of the
market can now, thanks to big data, be used on a large scale.

LEGO had agreements with TV cable providers, which could tell it when its
potential buyers (say mothers in their 30s with one or two children) were in
front of their TV. This allowed the company to address these particular
consumers at specific times of the day at a much lower cost.

2.1.4.3 Big Data to Ensure a Common Language

Not everything about big data is beneficial. Old problems considered resolved some
time ago have resurfaced. In the beginning, computers occupied around 70 % of an
entire room. In the 1980s that same room was used as a “data warehouse” where
technical guys played and experimented with data. The huge platforms, usually
based on IBM mainframes, made it possible for companies to start collecting vast
amounts of information. But the data meant different things depending on who used
it. In a given multinational, one country might include the impact of its discounts in
its net sales profits when uploading its sales data; another country might use a
different formula and exclude discounts from its net sales data. To be able to
2.1 Evolution of Digital in the Enterprise 15

compare the information (in this case sales) from different countries, companies
had to ensure that everyone used the same parameters. Software companies offered
programs to cleanse and integrate all the data to eliminate invalid information and
ensure better quality final data.

Nestlé, for example, made a huge effort to standardize the information it used
throughout the organization. Its massive GLOBE Program helped everyone
agree on a common language to refer to the internal functioning (Killing
2003). By the time its Globe project had been rolled out globally, all business
units and countries were using the same definitions for the data they stored:
net or gross sales meant the same thing in every country and in every business
unit. This achievement was only possible because all of its internal informa-
tion was stored on the same database (SAP). Today, Nestlé again faces the
challenge of obtaining reliable and integrated information because,
according to Everett (2012), “Companies store huge amounts of structured
and unstructured information from various sources and formats, and this data
needs to be governed, cleansed and integrated so that it can be used to build
predictive models and make decisions.” Even after this has been completed,
there will still be some invalid data among the validated information, but
Nestlé will have to learn to live with that.
LEGO understood the importance of high-quality big data for making
strategic decisions. But its database was fed with huge amounts of informa-
tion that did not follow common criteria, so the information that was
extracted was unreliable. It was imperative to develop a new solution with
a common definition of data throughout the company, and to cleanse the data
to ensure consistency and offer a “single version of the truth”1 instead of
many:
In 2012 LEGO took on the great challenge of what it called the Business
Intelligence Concept Foundation (BICF), whose main objective was to
achieve standardization data-wise. Until then data was stored centrally but
handled locally by the various business units, which created reports following
guidelines provided by their direct leader rather than by corporate standards.
These were often very time-consuming and useless reports that served the
purpose of just one person. In addition, users accessing the system could pull
up a report from the data they selected based on their own interpretation,
which resulted in a loss of rigor and trustworthiness. It was necessary to put
the existing data in order and give them more value by creating standard
reports available to all business units (Cordón and Ferreiro 2015).

1
Term used by Mark Rittman to define the need for a company to have integrated and reliable data
that would provide a “single version of the truth” (Rittman 2006).
16 2 From Digital Strategy to Strategy Is Digital

2.1.4.4 Big Data to Reshape the Business Model

The use of big data may impact business models on two levels. First, it can help
organizations manage their existing business models. Up until now those that had
several business models had to manage them all in the same way. Big data
eliminates this constraint because it opens up new ways of operating. Second, big
data can generate new business models. If LEGO started making money from
selling its apps, this would generate a new business model that would need to be
managed differently.

LEGO launched its HORIZON Project to process company information

throughout the value chain.
HORIZON was born out of a desire to match LEGO’s IT with the way it
operated as a company. When HORIZON started, a lot of work had already
been done to establish an integrated value chain based on a physical infra-
structure supporting it. Also the global operating principles had been defined.
The full execution of this strategic direction was, however, limited by the
IT set-up designed and implemented many years previously. But the new
business landscape was much more diverse. There was a fast-changing retail
landscape that included on the one hand the addition of new markets, and on
the other the digitalization of the play experience. This evolution transformed
the whole value chain but the IT system had not yet adapted to it. LEGO ran
on SAP, an IT-integrated model that brought together all the company
information in a big database. Its main constraint was that the present SAP
set-up was designed for a different business reality. To compensate for this
discordance LEGO needed to rely on manual interventions, many Excel
sheets and customization to the system. . . . The HORIZON project tried to
resolve the situation. It also acknowledged the need for flexibility to improve
responsiveness (Cordón and Ferreiro 2015).

2.1.5 How Big Data Will Impact Traditional Businesses

We saw at the beginning of this chapter how consumers are integrating digital into
their shopping journey, which has become more complex as a result of the many
different channels that people are using on their purchasing path. Businesses need
to adapt to this shift toward the use of multiple channels in the purchasing process,
referred to as the omnichannel.
The omnichannel has brought as a consequence the development of the
omnichain—still fairly recent and probably not applicable to all industries. Unlike
the traditional static value chain, the omnichain is dynamic in that it consists of
independent modules that can be re-configured and re-connected in real time
depending on the company’s needs.
The omnichain is starting to become a reality in a world in which many new
consumers combine digital and physical worlds as part of a single product or
2.1 Evolution of Digital in the Enterprise 17

Fig. 2.3 Business models

service experience: the digital fusion. Many companies will need to adapt to this to
keep customers engaged. For that they will need to reshape their business models
and probably create new ones (Fig. 2.3).
In our opinion, all companies should care about how the big data revolution will
affect their business. Its impact could be reflected at different levels. It may only
affect the company’s marketing aspects or it may require a rethink of the entire
value chain, including relationships with suppliers. Some companies may even find
that they need to revolutionize their products, services and business models.
Whatever the case may be, the big data journey has started, and sooner or later
all organizations will need to react. Changes that are apparently small may have
huge effects, as e-commerce has proven. In January 2014, Business Insider
published an article (Peterson 2014), which it followed up by a documentary on
WBIR.com a year later (Butera and Donila 2015), in which it warned that shopping
malls across America were shutting down. It predicted that only one-third of all
shopping malls were generating a profit at the time, 10 % of US malls would fail by
2022, and only half of those existing today would still be open by 2025. Why?
There are many reasons. Changing American lifestyles is one of them. Teenagers
are now the number one group shopping at malls. The groups that were important
mall shoppers years ago (baby boomers, empty nesters and millennials) do not want
to hang out with teenagers. The decline of the middle class due to economic crises is
also a contributing factor, as is the development of e-commerce. Although the
e-commerce sales market share is not enormous at 6.1 % of the total in 2014,
decreasing to 5.5 % in 2018 (eMarketer 2014), it is enough to account for
shopping-mall closures because it is destabilizing the retail ecosystem.
18 2 From Digital Strategy to Strategy Is Digital

Another example—that is apparently small but could be highly disruptive—is

the taxi industry and how it has been affected by Uber.

Uber, considered by Time as one of the best apps of the year in 2013 (Aamoth
2013), has been shut down in some countries because taxi drivers were losing
too much business. The app connects drivers and passengers, who can enjoy a
private ride for a lower rate than in a normal taxi. It seemed impossible that a
traditional industry sector like this could be affected by a smartphone appli-
cation, but it was. Uber’s market penetration was not huge and was not
expected to grow more than 10 % of the total market share in the overall
market in the future (Damodaran 2014), but this was enough to spur all taxi
lobbies to fight to have Uber closed down because it was taking too much
income from traditional taxi companies. In fact, small as it might seem, Uber
was serious business. Valued at $40 billion in December 2014 (Bradshaw
2014), its market capitalizations exceeded those of Twitter, LinkedIn or
transport companies such as American Airlines, Hertz and Avis. In the
meantime, other industry sectors like warehousing or home delivery are
starting to apply Uber’s business model.

2.2 Designing a Digital Strategy

Our research for this book revealed that companies were reacting to big data in
different ways. Some were basing their strategy on big data in that their new
strategy had become digital. Others had implemented a master plan to integrate
big data into their strategy. Yet others had not experienced a lot of impact to their
ecosystem.
We believe that all companies will need to hypothesize to what extent their
respective industry sector will be affected by the big data transformation and design
an appropriate strategy. Depending on the outcome of the hypothesis, companies
may opt for one of the following three strategies:

Digital Fit: Taking Advantage of Big Data Innovations In this scenario, the
business of the company does not change dramatically with the implementation and
use of big data. This could, for example, be the case of a B2B chemical company
with a small number of customers and suppliers. It will probably apply big data to
its internal functioning (sensors, machinery, etc.) but will not experience major
changes in strategy. Big data will not change its essence but will help it improve in a
number of areas such as customer service, operational savings or inventory
handling.

Digital Masterplan: Implementing Big Data Companies in this category will

implement a digital strategy into their corporate strategy but it will not become their
core business. Fast-moving consumer goods companies such as soft-drink
2.2 Designing a Digital Strategy 19

manufacturers will need to include a digital master plan in their overall strategy to
deal with big data. They will receive information from consumers, be able to get to
know them better and extract behavioral patterns, which might lead to a new selling
or communication strategy; retailers will expect cost reductions from leveraging
learnings from big data. Information gleaned from big data could prompt a com-
pany to change the way it distributes its products, as was the case 15 years ago when
companies sold or shared point-of-sales information to manufacturers to obtain
price reductions. Now retailers are providing big data information to manufacturers
in exchange for part of the savings achieved as a result of using this information.
Soft drinks manufacturers will therefore have to adapt their overall strategy and
design a big data masterplan to support it.

Digital DNA: Becoming Digital These companies will mutate as implementing

big data will fundamentally transform their business model. This will also require a
change of strategy to one driven by the use of big data. Some organizations are
already integrating big data into the core of their business. Insurance company Axa
is using big data to consolidate a better picture of risk (Axa 2014). Its brokers have
real-time access to information from a wide range of public sources, which they use
to tailor their approach and insurance solution to each client. Axa has changed its
insurance offerings, the criteria it uses to choose between them, and the way it
collects information from its customers. The whole business has been transformed
by big data. Car insurers also used big data to develop the “pay-as-you-drive”
concept where the premium is calculated dynamically based on the driver’s behav-
ior, which is monitored while the person drives (National Association of Insurance
Commissioners 2015).
Agreeing on the best strategy may not be straightforward. The toy industry is
certainly experiencing a situation that could go in many directions. All industry
players seem to agree that digital fusion is a fundamental change that is here to stay.
But to what extent will this justify a complete shift in company strategy? A toy
company may choose to become digital from its core and adapt all its toys and
games to a digital ecosystem, or it may choose to just create a strong digital strategy,
using big data to manage its relationship with customers and suppliers and for
marketing for example, and leave the essence of the company (and its toys) intact.

2.2.1 The Evolution of Corporate Strategy

Having decided on the most appropriate strategy, the big question is, how to take
the organization in the chosen direction? Over the years, companies have used a
number of strategic models to design their corporate strategies. Each of these
models has proved to be effective in some situations but less so in others. Below,
we describe the key ones and how they have adapted to the changing circumstances
over time.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 cheap and dangerous rubbish sold in poor neighbourhoods, and to prevent the use of side-fillers
and glass reservoirs in lamps of better quality, a still larger reduction in the number of accidents
would take place. In the use of the lamp for domestic purposes only soft well-fitting wicks should
be employed, and the lamp should be filled with oil each day so as never to allow it to burn too
low and so leave a large space above the surface of the oil in the reservoir. The lamp should
never be moved whilst alight, and it should only be put out by means of a proper extinguisher or
by blowing across the top instead of down the chimney. By these means the risk of accident
would be so reduced as to compare favourably with other illuminants.

Candles, oil and coal gas all emit the same products of complete combustion, viz. carbon
dioxide and water vapour. The quantities of these compounds emitted from different illuminants
for every candle of light per hour will be seen from the following table:

Cubic Feet per Candle.

Illuminant. Carbon Dioxide. Water Vapour.
Sperm candle 0.41 0.41
Oil lamp 0.24 0.18
Gas—Flat flame 0.26 0.67
Argand 0.17 0.45
Regenerative 0.07 0.19
Incandescent 0.03 0.08

From these data it appears that if the sanitary condition of the air of a dwelling-room be
measured by the amount of carbon dioxide present, as is usually done, candles are the most
prejudicial to health and comfort, oil lamps less so, and gas least, an assumption which practical
experience does not bear out. The explanation of this is to be found in these facts: First, where
we illuminate a room with candles or oil we are contented with a less intense and more local light
than when we are using gas, and in a room of ordinary size would be more likely to use a lamp or
two candles than the far higher illumination we should demand if gas were employed. Secondly,
the amount of water vapour given off during the combustion of gas is greater than in the case of
the other illuminants, and water vapour absorbing radiant heat from the burning gas becomes
heated, and, diffusing itself about the room, causes great oppression. Also the air, being highly
charged with moisture, is unable to take up so rapidly the water vapour which is always
evaporating from the surface of our skin, and in this way the functions of the body receive a slight
check, resulting in a feeling of depression.

A very successful type of oil lamp for use in engineering is represented by the Lucigen, Doty, and
Wells lights, in which the oil is forced from a reservoir by air-pressure through a spiral heated by the
flame of the lamp, and the heated oil, being then ejected partly as vapour and partly
Oil-spray as spray, burns with a large and highly luminous flame. The great drawback to these
lamps. devices is that a certain proportion of the oil spray escapes combustion and is
deposited in the vicinity of the light. This form of lamp is often used for heating as
well as lighting; the rivets needed for the Forth Bridge were heated in trays by lamps of this type at the
spot where they were required. The great advantage of these lamps was that oils of little value could be
employed, and the light obtained approximated to 750 candles per gallon of oil consumed. They may to
a certain extent be looked upon as the forerunners of perhaps the most successful form of incandescent
oil-burner.

As early as 1885 Arthur Kitson attempted to make a burner for heating purposes on the foregoing
principle, i.e. by injecting oil under pressure from a fine tube into a chamber where it would be heated
by the waste heat escaping from the flame below, the vapour so produced being
Oil applied to made to issue from a small jet under the pressure caused by the initial air-pressure
incandescent and the expansion in the gasifying tube. This jet of gas was then led into what was
lighting. practically an atmospheric burner, and drew in with it sufficient air to cause its
combustion with a non-luminous blue flame of great heating power. At the time when
this was first done the Welsbach mantle had not yet reached the period of commercial utility, and
attempts were made to use this flame for the generation of light by consuming it in a mantle of fine
platinum gauze, which, although giving a very fine illuminating effect during the first few hours, very
soon shared the fate of all platinum mantles—that is, carbonization of the platinum surface took place,
and destroyed its power of light emissivity. It was not until 1893 that the perfecting of the Welsbach
mantle enabled this method of consuming the oil to be employed. The Kitson lamp, and also the Empire
lamp on a similar principle, have given results which ought to ensure their future success, the only
drawback being that they need a certain amount of intelligent care to keep them in good working order.

Oil gas and oil vapours differ from coal gas merely in the larger proportion and greater complexity of
the hydrocarbon molecules present, and to render the oil flame available for incandescent lighting it is
only necessary to cause the oil gas or vapour to become mixed with a sufficient
Incandescent proportion of air before it arrives at the point of combustion. But with gases so rich
table-lamps. in hydrocarbons as those developed from oil it is excessively difficult to get the
necessary air intimately and evenly mixed with the gas in sufficient proportion to
bring about the desired result. If even coal gas be taken and mixed with 2.27 volumes of air, its
luminosity is destroyed, but such a flame would be useless with the incandescent mantle, as if the non-
luminous flame be superheated a certain proportion of its luminosity will reappear. When such a flame is
used with a mantle the superheating effect of the mantle itself very quickly leads to the decomposition
of the hydrocarbons and blackening of the mantle, which not only robs it of its light-giving powers, but
also rapidly ends its life. If, however, the proportion of air be increased, the appearance of the flame
becomes considerably altered, and the hydrocarbon molecules being burnt up before impact with the
heated surface of the mantle, all chance of blackening is avoided.

On the first attempts to construct a satisfactory oil lamp which could be used with the
incandescent mantle, this trouble showed itself to be a most serious one, as although it was
comparatively easy so to regulate a circular-wicked flame fed by an excess of air as to make it
non-luminous, the moment the mantle was put upon this, blackening quickly appeared, while
when methods for obtaining a further air supply were devised, the difficulty of producing a flame
which would burn for a considerable time without constant necessity for regulation proved a
serious drawback. This trouble has militated against most of the incandescent oil lamps placed
upon the market.

It soon became evident that if a wick were employed the difficulty of getting it perfectly
symmetrical was a serious matter, and that it could only be utilized in drawing the oil up to a
heating chamber where it could be volatilized to produce the oil gas, which on then being mixed
with air would give the non-luminous flame. In the earlier forms of incandescent oil lamps the
general idea was to suck the oil up by the capillarity of a circular wick to a point a short distance
 below the opening of the burner at which the flame was formed, and here the oil was vaporized
or gasified by the heat of the head of the burner. An air supply was then drawn up through a tube
passing through the centre of the wick-tube, while a second air current was so arranged as to
discharge itself almost horizontally upon the burning gas below the cap, in this way giving a non-
luminous and very hot flame, which if kept very carefully adjusted afforded excellent results with
an incandescent mantle. It was an arrangement somewhat of this character that was introduced
by the Welsbach Company. The lamps, however, required such careful attention, and were
moreover so irregular in their performance, that they never proved very successful. Many other
forms have reached a certain degree of perfection, but have not so far attained sufficient
regularity of action to make them commercial successes. One of the most successful was devised
by F. Altmann, in which an ingenious arrangement caused the vaporization of oil and water by the
heat of a little oil lamp in a lower and separate chamber, and the mixture of oil gas and steam
was then burnt in a burner-head with a special arrangement of air supply, heating a mantle
suspended above the burner-head.

The perfect petroleum incandescent lamp has not yet been made, but the results thus obtained
show that when the right system has been found a very great increase in the amount of light
developed from the petroleum may be expected. In one lamp experimented with for some time it
was easy to obtain 3500 candle hours per gallon of oil, or three times the amount of light
obtainable from the oil when burnt under ordinary conditions.

Before the manufacture of coal-gas had become so universal as it is at present, a favourite illuminant
for country mansions and even villages where no coal-gas was available was a mixture of air with the
vapour of very volatile hydrocarbons, which is generally known as “air-gas.” This was
Air-gas. produced by passing a current of dry air through or over petroleum spirit or the light
hydrocarbons distilled from tar, when sufficient of the hydrocarbon was taken up to
give a luminous flame in flat flame and Argand burners in the same way as coal-gas, the trouble being
that it was difficult to regulate the amount of hydrocarbon held in suspension by the air, as this varied
very widely with the temperature. As coal-gas spread to the smaller villages and electric lighting became
utilized in large houses, the use of air-gas died out, but with the general introduction of the
incandescent mantle it again came to the front. In the earlier days of this revival, air-gas rich in
hydrocarbon vapour was made and was further aerated to give a non-luminous flame by burning it in an
atmospheric burner.

One of the best illustrations of this system was the Aerogene gas introduced by A. I. van
Vriesland, which was utilized for lighting a number of villages and railway stations on the
continent of Europe. In this arrangement a revolving coil of pipes continually dips into petroleum
spirit contained in a cylinder, and the air passed into the cylinder through the coil of pipes
becomes highly carburetted by the time it reaches the outlet at the far end of the cylinder. The
resulting gas when burnt in an ordinary burner gives a luminous flame; it can be used in
atmospheric burners differing little from those of the ordinary type. With an ordinary Welsbach
“C” burner it gives a duty of about 30 candles per foot of gas consumed, the high illuminating
power being due to the fact that the gas is under a pressure of from 6 to 8 in. With such a gas,
containing a considerable percentage of hydrocarbon vapour, any leakage into the air of a room
would give rise to an explosive mixture, in the same way that coal-gas would do, but inasmuch as
mixtures of the vapour of petroleum spirit and air are only explosive for a very short range, that
is, from 1.25 to 5.3%, some systems have been introduced in which by keeping the amount of
 petroleum vapour at 2% and burning the gas under pressure in a specially constructed non-
aerating mantle burner, not only has it been found possible to produce a very large volume of gas
per gallon of spirit employed, but the gas is itself non-explosive, increase in the amount of air
taking it farther away from the explosive limit. The Hooker, De Laitte and several other systems
have been based upon this principle.

2. Gas Lighting

In all measurements of illuminating value the standard of comparison used in England is the light
yielded by a sperm candle of the size known as “sixes,” i.e. six to the pound, consuming 120 grains of
sperm per hour, and although in photometric work slight inequalities in burning have led to the candle
being discarded in practice, the standard lamps burning pentane vapour which have replaced them are
arranged to yield a light of ten candles, and the photometric results are expressed as before in terms of
candles.

When William Murdoch first used coal-gas at his Redruth home in 1779, he burnt the gas as it
escaped from the open end of a small iron tube, but soon realizing that this plan entailed very large
consumption of gas and gave a very small amount of light, he welded up the end of his tube and bored
three small holes in it, so arranged that they formed three divergent jets of flame. From the shape of
the flame so produced this burner received the name of the “cockspur” burner, and it was the one used
by Murdoch when in 1807 he fitted up an installation of gas lighting at Phillips & Lee’s works in
Manchester. This—the earliest form of gas burner—gave an illuminating value of a little under one
candle per cubic foot of gas consumed, and this duty was slightly increased when the burner was
improved by flattening up the welded end of the tube and making a series of small holes in line and
close together, the jets of flame from which gave the burner the name of the “cockscomb.” It did not
need much inventive faculty to replace the line of holes by a saw-cut, the gas issuing from which burnt
in a sheet, the shape of which led to the burner being called the “batswing.” This was followed in 1820
by the discovery of J. B. Neilson, of Glasgow, whose name is remembered in connexion with the use of
the hot-air blast in iron-smelting, that, by allowing two flames to impinge upon one another so as to
form a flat flame, a slight increase in luminosity was obtained, and after several preliminary stages the
union jet or “fishtail” burner was produced. In this form of burner two holes, bored at the necessary
angle in the same nipple, caused two streams of gas to impinge upon each other so that they flattened
themselves out into a sheet of flame. The flames given by the batswing and fishtail burners differed in
shape, the former being wide and of but little height, whilst the latter was much higher and more
narrow. This factor ensured for the fishtail a greater amount of popularity than the batswing burner had
obtained, as the flame was less affected by draughts and could be used with a globe, although the
illuminating efficiency of the two burners differed little.

In a lecture at the Royal Institution on the 20th of May 1853, Sir Edward Frankland showed a burner
he had devised for utilizing the heat of the flame to raise the temperature of the air supply necessary
for the combustion of the gas. The burner was an Argand of the type then in use,
Regenerative consisting of a metal ring pierced with holes so as to give a circle of small jets, the
burner. ring of flame being surrounded by a chimney. But in addition to this chimney,
Frankland added a second external one, extending some distance below the first and
closed at the bottom by a glass plate fitted air-tight to the pillar carrying the burner. In this way the air
needed for the combustion of the gas had to pass down the space between the two chimneys, and in so
doing became highly heated, partly by contact with the hot glass, and partly by radiation. Sir Edward
Frankland estimated that the temperature of the air reaching the flame was about 500°F. In 1854 a very
similar arrangement was brought forward by the Rev. W. R. Bowditch, and, as a large amount of
publicity was given to it, the inception of the regenerative burner was generally ascribed to Bowditch,
although undoubtedly due to Frankland.

The principle of regeneration was adopted in a number of lamps, the best of which was brought out
by Friedrich Siemens in 1879. Although originally made for heating purposes, the light given by the
burner was so effective and superior to anything obtained up to that time that it was with some slight
alterations adapted for illuminating purposes.

Improvements followed in the construction and design of the regenerative lamp, and when used as
an overhead burner it was found that not only was an excellent duty obtained per cubic foot of gas
consumed, but that the lamp could be made a most efficient engine of ventilation, as an enormous
amount of vitiated air could be withdrawn from the upper part of a room through a flue in the ceiling
space. So marked was the increase in light due to the regeneration that a considerable number of
burners working on this principle were introduced, some of them like the Wenham and Cromartie
coming into extensive use. They were, however, costly to install, so that the flat flame burner retained
its popularity in spite of the fact that its duty was comparatively low, owing to the flame being drawn
out into a thin sheet and so exposed to the cooling influence of the atmosphere. Almost at the same
time that Murdoch was introducing the cockscomb and cockspur burners, he also made rough forms of
Argand burner, consisting of two concentric pipes between which the gas was led and burnt with a
circular flame. This form was soon improved by filling in the space between the tubes with a ring of
metal, bored with fine holes so close together that the jets coalesced in burning and gave a more
satisfactory flame, the air necessary to keep the flame steady and ensure complete combustion being
obtained by the draught created by a chimney placed around it. When it began to be recognized that
the temperature of the flame had a great effect upon the amount of light emitted, the iron tips, which
had been universally employed, both in flat flame and Argand burners, were replaced by steatite or
other non-conducting material of similar character, to prevent as far as possible heat from being
withdrawn from the flame by conduction.

In 1880 the burners in use for coal-gas therefore consisted of flat flame, Argand, and regenerative
burners, and the duty given by them with a 16-candle gas was as follows:—

Candle units
Burner. per cub. ft.
of gas.
Union jet flat flame, No. 0 0.59
” ” 1 0.85
” ” 2 1.22
” ” 3 1.63
” ” 4 1.74
” ” 5 1.87
” ” 6 2.15
” ” 7 2.44
Ordinary Argand 2.90
Standard Argand 3.20
Regenerative 7 to 10
 The luminosity of a coal-gas flame depends upon the number of carbon particles liberated within it,
and the temperature to which they can be heated. Hence the light given by a flame of coal-gas can be
augmented by (1) increasing the number of the carbon particles, and (2) raising the temperature to
which they are exposed. The first process is carried out by enrichment (see Gas: Manufacture), the
second is best obtained by regeneration, the action of which is limited by the power possessed by the
material of which burners are composed to withstand the superheating. Although with a perfectly made
regenerative burner it might be possible for a short time to get a duty as high as 16 candles per cubic
foot from ordinary coal-gas, such a burner constructed of the ordinary materials would last only a few
hours, so that for practical use and a reasonable life for the burner 10 candles per cubic foot was about
the highest commercial duty that could be reckoned on. This limitation naturally caused inventors to
search for methods by which the emission of light could be obtained from coal-gas otherwise than by
the incandescence of the carbon particles contained within the flame itself. A coal-gas flame consumed
in an atmospheric burner under the conditions necessary to develop its maximum heating power could
be utilized to raise to incandescence particles having a higher emissivity for light than carbon. This led
to the gradual evolution of incandescent gas lighting.

Long before the birth of the Welsbach mantle it had been known that when certain unburnable
refractory substances were heated to a high temperature they emitted light, and Goldsworthy Gurney in
1826 showed that a cylinder of lime could be brought to a state of dazzling brilliancy
Incandescent by the flame of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, a fact which was utilized by Thomas
gas light. Drummond shortly afterwards in connexion with the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. The
mass of a lime cylinder is, however, relatively very considerable, and consequently an
excessive amount of heat has to be brought to bear upon it, owing to radiation and conduction tending
to dissipate the heat. This is seen by holding in the flame of an atmospheric burner a coil of thick
platinum wire, the result being that the wire is heated to a dull red only. With wire of medium thickness
a bright red heat is soon attained, and a thin wire glows with a vivid incandescence, and will even melt
in certain parts of the flame. Attempts were accordingly made to reduce the mass of the material
heated, and this form of lighting was tried in the streets of Paris, buttons of zirconia and magnesia
being heated by an oxy-coal-gas flame, but the attempt was soon abandoned owing to the high cost
and constant renewals needed. In 1835 W. H. Fox Talbot discovered that even the feeble flame of a
spirit lamp is sufficient to heat lime to incandescence, provided the lime be in a sufficiently fine state of
division. This condition he fulfilled by soaking blotting-paper in a solution of a calcium salt and then
incinerating it. Up to 1848, when J. P. Gillard introduced the intermittent process of making water-gas,
the spirit flame and oxy-hydrogen flame were alone free from carbon particles. Desiring to use the
water-gas for lighting as well as heating purposes Gillard made a mantle of fine platinum gauze to fit
over the flame, and for a time obtained excellent results, but after a few days the lighting value of the
mantle fell away gradually until it became useless, owing to the wire becoming eroded on the surface by
the flame gases. This idea has been revived at intervals, but the trouble of erosion has always led to
failure.

The next important stage in the history of gas lighting was the discovery by R. W. von Bunsen about
1855 of the atmospheric burner, in which a non-luminous coal-gas flame is obtained by causing the
coal-gas before its combustion to mix with a certain amount of air. This simple appliance has opened up
for coal-gas a sphere of usefulness for heating purposes as important as its use for lighting. After the
introduction of the atmospheric burner the idea of the incandescent mantle was revived early in the
eighties by the Clamond basket and a resuscitation of the platinum mantle. The Clamond basket or
mantle, as shown at the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1882-1883, consisted of a cone of threads of
calcined magnesia. A mixture of magnesium hydrate and acetate, converted into a paste or cream by
means of water, was pressed through holes in a plate so as to form threads, and these, after being
moulded to the required shape, were ignited. The heat decomposed the acetate to form a luting
material which glued the particles of magnesium oxide produced into a solid mass, whilst the hydrate
gave off water and became oxide. The basket was supported with its apex downwards in a little
platinum wire cage, and a mixture of coal-gas and air was driven into it under pressure from an inverted
blowpipe burner above it.

The Welsbach mantle was suggested by the fact that Auer von Welsbach had been carrying out
researches on the rare earths, with constant use of the spectroscope. Desiring to obtain a better effect
than that produced by heating his material on a platinum wire, he immersed cotton in a solution of the
metallic salt, and after burning off the organic matter found that a replica of the original thread,
composed of the oxide of the metal, was left, and that it glowed brightly in the flame. From this he
evolved the idea of utilizing a fabric of cotton soaked in a solution of a metallic salt for lighting
purposes, and in 1885 he patented his first commercial mantle. The oxides used in these mantles were
zirconia, lanthania, and yttria, but these were so fragile as to be practically useless, whilst the light they
emitted was very poor. Later he found that the oxide of thorium—thoria—in conjunction with other rare
earth oxides, not only increased the light-giving powers of the mantle, but added considerably to its
strength, and the use of this oxide was protected by his 1886 patent. Even these mantles were very
unsatisfactory until it was found that the purity of the oxides had a wonderful effect upon the amount of
light, and finally came the great discovery that it was a trace of ceria in admixture with the thoria that
gave the mantle the marvellous power of emitting light.

Certain factors limit the number of oxides that can be used in the manufacture of an
incandescent mantle. Atmospheric influences must not have any action upon them, and they
must be sufficiently refractory not to melt or even soften to any extent at the temperature of the
flame; they must also be non-volatile, whilst the shrinkage during the process of “burning off”
must not be excessive. The following table gives the light-emissivity from pure and commercial
samples of the oxides which most nearly conform to the above requirements; the effect of
impurity upon the lighting power will be seen to be most marked.

Pure. Commercial.
Metals—
Zirconia 1.5 3.1
Thoria 0.5 6.0
Earth metals—
Cerite earths—Ceria 0.4 0.9
Lanthania 6.0
Yttrite earths—Yttria 3.2
Erbia 0.6 1.7
Common earths—Chromium oxide 0.4 0.4
Alumina 0.6 0.6
Alkaline earth metals—
Baryta 3.3 3.3
Strontia 5.2 5.5
Magnesia 5.0 5.0
 Of these oxides thoria, when tested for shrinkage, duration and strength, stands pre-eminent.
It is also possible to employ zirconia and alumina. Zirconia has the drawback that in the hottest
part of the flame it is liable not only to shrinkage and semi-fusion, but also to slow volatilization,
and the same objections hold good with respect to alumina. With thoria the shrinkage is smaller
than with any other known substance, and it possesses very high refractory powers.

The factor which gives thoria its pre-eminence as the basis of the mantle is that in the
conversion of thorium nitrate into thorium oxide by heat, an enormous expansion takes place, the
oxide occupying more than ten times the volume of the nitrate. This means that the mass is
highly spongy, and contains an enormous number of little air-cells which must render it an
excellent non-conductor. A mantle made with thoria alone gives practically no light. But the power
of light-emissivity is awakened by the addition of a small trace of ceria; and careful experiment
shows that as ceria is added to it little by little, the light which the mantle emits grows greater
and greater, until the ratio of 99% of thoria and 1% of ceria is reached, when the maximum
illuminating effect is obtained. The further addition of ceria causes gradual diminution of light,
until, when with some 10% of ceria has been added, the light given by the mantle is again almost
inappreciable. When cerium nitrate is converted by heat into cerium oxide, the expansion which
takes place is practically nil, the ceria obtained from a gramme of the nitrate occupying about the
same space as the original nitrate. Thus, although by weight the ratio of ceria to thoria is as 1:99,
by volume it is only as 1:999.

The most successful form of mantle is made by taking a cylinder of cotton net about 8 in. long, and
soaking it in a solution of nitrates of the requisite metals until the microscopic fibres of the cotton are
entirely filled with liquid. A longer soaking is not advantageous, as the acid nature of
Manufacture of the liquid employed tends to weaken the fabric and render it more delicate to handle.
mantles. The cotton is then wrung out to free it from the excess of liquid, and one end is
sewn together with an asbestos thread, a loop of the same material or of thin
platinum wire being fixed across the constricted portion to provide a support by which the mantle may
be held by the carrying rod, which is either external to the mantle, or (as is most often the case) fixed
centrally in the burner head. It is then ready for “burning off,” a process in which the organic matter is
removed and the nitrates are converted into oxides. The flame of an atmospheric burner is first applied
to the constricted portion at the top of the mantle, whereupon the cotton gradually burns downwards,
the shape of the mantle to a great extent depending on the regularity with which the combustion takes
place. A certain amount of carbon is left behind after the flame has died out, and this is burnt off by the
judicious application of a flame from an atmospheric blast burner to the interior. The action which takes
place during the burning off is as follows: The cellulose tubes of the fibre are filled with the crystallized
nitrates of the metals used, and as the cellulose burns the nitrates decompose, giving up oxygen and
forming fusible nitrites, which in their semi-liquid condition are rendered coherent by the rapid
expansion as the oxide forms. As the action continues the nitrites become oxides, losing their fusibility,
so that by the time the organic matter has disappeared a coherent thread of oxide is left in place of the
nitrate-laden thread of cotton. In the early days of incandescent lighting the mantles had to be sent out
unburnt, as no process was known by which the burnt mantle could be rendered sufficiently strong to
bear carriage. As the success of a mantle depends upon its fitting the flame, and as the burning off
requires considerable skill, this was a great difficulty. Moreover the acid nature of the nitrates in the
fibres rapidly rotted them, unless they had been subjected to the action of ammonia gas, which
neutralized any excess of acid. It was discovered, however, that the burnt-off mantle could be
temporarily strengthened by dipping it in collodion, a solution of soluble gun-cotton in ether and alcohol
together with a little castor-oil or similar material to prevent excessive shrinkage when drying. When the
mantle was removed from the solution a thin film of solid collodion was left on it, and this could be
burned away when required.

After the Welsbach mantle had proved itself a commercial success many attempts were made
to evade the monopoly created under the patents, and, although it was found impossible to get
the same illuminating power with anything but the mixture of 99% thoria and 1% ceria, many
ingenious processes were devised which resulted in at least one improvement in mantle
manufacture. One of the earliest attempts in this direction was the “Sunlight” mantle, in which
cotton was saturated with the oxides of aluminium, chromium and zirconium, the composition of
the burnt-off mantle being:—

Alumina 86.88
Chromium oxide 8.68
Zirconia 4.44
———
100.00

The light given by these mantles was entirely dependent upon the proportion of chromium
oxides present, the alumina playing the part of base in the same way that the thoria does in the
Welsbach mantle, the zirconia being added merely to strengthen the structure. These mantles
enjoyed considerable popularity owing to the yellowish pink light they emitted, but, although they
could give an initial illumination of 12 to 15 candles per foot of gas consumed, they rapidly lost
their light-giving power owing to the slow volatilization of the oxides of chromium and aluminium.

Another method of making the mantle was first to produce a basis of thoria, and, having got
the fabric in thorium oxide, to coat it with a mixture of 99% thoria and 1% ceria. This
modification seems to give an improvement in the initial amount of light given by the mantle. In
the Voelker mantle a basis of thoria was produced, and was then coated by dipping in a
substance termed by the patentee “Voelkerite,” a body made by fusing together a number of
oxides in the electric furnace. The fused mass was then dissolved in the strongest nitric acid, and
diluted with absolute alcohol to the necessary degree. A very good mantle having great lasting
power was thus produced. It was claimed that the process of fusing the materials together in the
electric furnace altered the composition in some unexplained way, but the true explanation is
probably that all water of hydration was eliminated.

The “Daylight” mantle consisted of a basis of thoria or thoria mixed with zirconia, dipped in
collodion containing a salt of cerium in solution; on burning off the collodion the ceria was left in
a finely divided condition on the surface of the thoria. In this way a very high initial illuminating
power was obtained, which, however, rapidly fell as the ceria slowly volatilized.

Perhaps the most interesting development of the Welsbach process was dependent upon the
manufacture of filaments of soluble guncotton or collodion as in the production of artificial silk. In
general the process consisted in forcing a thick solution of the nitrated cellulose through capillary
glass tubes, the bore of which was less than the one-hundredth of a millimetre. Ten or twelve of
the expressed fibres were then twisted together and wound on a bobbin, the air of the room
being kept sufficiently heated to cause the drying of the filaments a few inches from the orifice of
the tube. The compound thread was next denitrated to remove its extreme inflammability, and for
this purpose the skeins were dipped in a solution of (for instance) ammonium sulphide, which
converted them into ordinary cellulose. After washing and drying the skeins were ready for the
weaving machines. In 1894 F. de Mare utilized collodion for the manufacture of a mantle, adding
the necessary salts to the collodion before squeezing it into threads. O. Knöfler in 1895, and later
on A. Plaissetty, took out patents for the manufacture of mantles by a similar process to De
Mare’s, the difference between the two being that Knöfler used ammonium sulphide for the
denitration of his fabric, whilst Plaissetty employed calcium sulphide, the objection to which is the
trace of lime left in the material. Another method for making artificial silk which has a
considerable reputation is that known as the Lehner process, which in its broad outlines
somewhat resembles the Chardonnet, but differs from it in that the excessively high pressures
used in the earlier method are done away with by using a solution of a more liquid character, the
thread being hardened by passing through certain organic solutions. This form of silk lends itself
perhaps better to the carrying of the salts forming the incandescent oxides than the previous
solutions, and mantles made by this process, known as Lehner mantles, showed promise of being
a most important development of De Mare’s original idea. Mantles made by these processes show
that it is possible to obtain a very considerable increase in life and light-emissivity, but mantles
made on this principle could not now be sold at a price which would enable them to compete with
mantles of the Welsbach type.

The cause of the superiority of these mantles having been realized, developments in the
required direction were made. The structure of the cotton mantle differed widely from that
obtained by the various collodion processes, and this alteration in structure was mainly
responsible for the increase in life. Whereas the average of a large number of Welsbach mantles
tested only showed a useful life of 700 to 1000 hours, the collodion type would average about
1500 hours, some mantles being burnt for an even longer period and still giving an effective
illumination. This being so, it was clear that one line of advance would be found in obtaining
some material which, whilst giving a structure more nearly approaching that of the collodion
mantle, would be sufficiently cheap to compete with the Welsbach mantle, and this was
successfully done.

By the aid of the microscope the structure of the mantle can be clearly defined, and in
examining the Welsbach mantle before and after burning, it will be noticed that the cotton thread
is a closely twisted and plaited rope of myriads of minute fibres, whilst the collodion mantle is a
bundle of separate filaments without plait or heavy twisting, the number of such filaments varying
with the process by which it was made. This latter factor experiment showed to have a certain
influence on the useful light-giving life of the mantle, as whereas the Knöfler and Plaissetty
mantles had an average life of about 1500 hours, the Lehner fabric, which contained a larger
number of finer threads, could often be burnt continuously for over 3000 hours, and at the end of
that period gave a better light than most of the Welsbach after as many hundred.

It is well known that plaiting gave the cotton candle-wick that power of bending over, when
freed from the binding effect of the candle material and influenced by heat, which brought the tip
out from the side of the flame. This, by enabling the air to get at it and burn it away, removed the
nuisance of having to snuff the candle, which for many centuries has rendered it a tiresome
method of lighting. In the cotton mantle, the tight twisting of the fibre brings this torsion into
play. When the cotton fibres saturated with the nitrates of the rare metals are burnt off, and the
 conversion into oxides takes place, as the cotton begins to burn, not only does the shrinkage of
the mass throw a strain on the oxide skeleton, but the last struggle of torsion in the burning of
the fibre tends towards disintegration of the fragile mass, and this all plays a part in making the
cotton mantle inferior to the collodion type.

If ramie fibre be prepared in such a way as to remove from it all traces of the glutinous coating,
a silk-like fabric can be obtained from it, and if still further prepared so as to improve its
absorbent powers, it can be formed into mantles having a life considerably greater than is
possessed by those of the cotton fabric. Ramie thus seemed likely to yield a cheap competitor in
length of endurance to the collodion mantle, and results have justified this expectation. By
treating the fibre so as to remove the objections against its use for mantle-making, and then
making it into threads with the least possible amount of twist, a mantle fabric can be made in
every way superior to that given by cotton.

The Plaissetty mantles, which as now manufactured also show a considerable advance in life
and light over the original Welsbach mantles, are made by impregnating stockings of either cotton
or ramie with the nitrates of thorium and cerium in the usual way, and, before burning off,
mercerizing the mantle by steeping in ammonia solution, which converts the nitrates into
hydrates, and gives greater density and strength to the finished mantle. The manufacturers of the
Plaissetty mantle have also made a modification in the process by which the saturated fabric can
be so prepared as to be easily burnt off by the consumer on the burner on which it is to be used,
in this way doing away with the initial cost of burning off, shaping, hardening and collodionizing.

Since 1897 inventions have been patented for methods of intensifying the light produced by burning
gas under a mantle and increasing the light generated per unit volume of gas. The systems have either
been self-intensifying or have depended on supplying the gas (or gas and air) under
Intensifying an increased pressure. Of the self-intensifying systems those of Lucas and Scott-Snell
systems. have been the most successful. A careful study has been made by the inventor of the
Lucas light of the influence of various sizes and shapes of chimneys in the production
of draught. The specially formed chimney used exerts a suction on the gas flame and air, and the
burner and mantle are so constructed as to take full advantage of the increased air supply, with the
result that the candle power given by the mantle is considerably augmented. With the Scott-Snell
system the results obtained are about the same as those given by the Lucas light, but in this case the
waste heat from the burner is caused to operate a plunger working in the crown of the lamp which
sucks and delivers gas to the burner. Both these systems are widely used for public lighting in many
large towns of the United Kingdom and the continent of Europe.

The other method of obtaining high light-power from incandescent gas burners necessitates the use
of some form of motive power in order to place the gas, or both gas and air, under an increased
pressure. The gas compressor is worked by a water motor, hot air or gas engine; a low pressure water
motor may be efficiently driven by water from the main, but with large installations it is more
economical to drive the compressor by a gas engine. To overcome the intermittent flow of gas caused
by the stroke of the engine, a regulator on the floating bell principle is placed after the compressor; the
pressure of gas in the apparatus governs automatically the flow of gas to the engine. With the Sugg
apparatus for high power lighting the gas is brought from the district pressure, which is equal to about
2½ in. of water, to an average of 12 in. water pressure. The light obtained by this system when the gas
pressure is 9½ in. is 300 candle power with an hourly consumption of 10 cub. ft. of gas, equivalent to
30 candles per cubic foot, and with a gas pressure equal to 14 in. of water 400 candles are obtained
with an hourly consumption of 12½ cub. ft., which represents a duty of 32 candles per cubic foot of gas
consumed. High pressure incandescent lighting makes it possible to burn a far larger volume of gas in a
given time under a mantle than is the case with low pressure lighting, so as to create centres of high
total illuminating value to compete with arc lighting in the illumination of large spaces, and the Lucas,
Keith, Scott-Snell, Millennium, Selas, and many other pressure systems answer most admirably for this
purpose.

The light given by the ordinary incandescent mantle burning in an upright position tends rather to the
upward direction, because owing to the slightly conical shape of the mantle the maximum light is
emitted at an angle a little above the horizontal. Inasmuch as for working purposes
Inverted the surface that a mantle illuminates is at angles below 45° from the horizontal, it is
burners. evident that a considerable loss of efficient lighting is brought about, whilst directly
under the light the burner and fittings throw a strong shadow. To avoid this trouble
attempts have from time to time been made to produce inverted burners which should heat a mantle
suspended below the mouth of the burner. As early as 1882 Clamond made what was practically an
inverted gas and air blowpipe to use with his incandescent basket, but it was not until 1900-1901 that
the inverted mantle became a possibility. Although there was a strong prejudice against it at first, as
soon as a really satisfactory burner was introduced, its success was quickly placed beyond doubt. The
inverted mantle has now proved itself one of the chief factors in the enormous success achieved by
incandescent mantle lighting, as the illumination given by it is far more efficient than with the upright
mantle, and it also lends itself well to ornamental treatment.

When the incandescent mantle was first introduced in 1886 an ordinary laboratory Bunsen burner was
experimentally employed, but unless a very narrow mantle just fitting the top of the tube was used the
flame could not be got to fit the mantle, and it was only the extreme outer edge of
Burners. the flame which endowed the mantle fabric with the high incandescent. A wide
burner top was then placed on the Bunsen tube so as to spread the flame, and a
larger mantle became possible, but it was then found that the slowing down of the rate of flow at the
mouth of the burner owing to its enlargement caused flashing or firing back, and to prevent this a wire
gauze covering was fitted to the burner head; and in this way the 1886-1887 commercial Welsbach
burner was produced. The length of the Bunsen tube, however, made an unsightly fitting, so it was
shortened, and the burner head made to slip over it, whilst an external lighting back plate was added.
The form of the “C” burner thus arrived at has undergone no important further change. When later on it
was desired to make incandescent mantle burners that should not need the aid of a chimney to increase
the air supply, the long Bunsen tube was reverted to, and the Kern, Bandsept, and other burners of this
class all have a greater total length than the ordinary burners. To secure proper mixing of the air and
gas, and to prevent flashing back, they all have heads fitted with baffles, perforations, gauze, and other
devices which oppose considerable resistance to the flow of the stream of air and gas.

In 1900, therefore, two classes of burner were in commercial existence for incandescent lighting—(1)
the short burner with chimney, and (2) the long burner without chimney. Both classes had the burner
mouth closed with gauze or similar device, and both needed as an essential that the mantle should fit
closely to the burner head.
 Prior to 1900 attempts had been made to construct a burner in which
an incandescent mantle should be suspended head downwards. Inventors
all turned to the overhead regenerative gas lamps of the Wenham type, or
the inverted blowpipe used by Clamond, and in attempting to make an
inverted Bunsen employed either artificial pressure to the gas or the air, or
to both, or else enclosed the burner and mantle in a globe, and by means
of a long chimney created a strong draught. These burners also were all
regenerative and aimed at heating the air or gas or mixture of the two,
and they had the further drawback of being complicated and costly.
Regeneration is a valuable adjunct in ordinary gas lighting as it increases
the actions that liberate the carbon particles upon which the luminosity of
a flame is dependent, and also increases the temperature; but with the
mixture of air and gas in a Bunsen regeneration is not a great gain when
low and is a drawback when intense, because incipient combination is
induced between the oxygen of the air and the coal-gas before the burner
head is reached, the proportions of air and gas are disturbed, and the
flame instead of being non-luminous shows slight luminosity and tends to
blacken the mantle. The only early attempt to burn a mantle in an
inverted position without regeneration or artificial pressure or draught was
made by H. A. Kent in 1897, and he used, not an inverted Bunsen, but
one with the top elongated and turned over to form a siphon, so that the
point of admixture of air and gas was below the level of the burner head,
and was therefore kept cool and away from the products of combustion.

In 1900 J. Bernt and E. Cérvenka set themselves to solve the problem of

making a Bunsen burner which should consume gas under ordinary gas
pressure in an inverted mantle. They took the short Bunsen burner, as found in
the most commonly used upright incandescent burners, and fitted to it a long
tube, preferably of non-conducting material, which they called an isolator, and
which is designed to keep the flame at a distance from the Bunsen. They found
that it burnt fairly well, and that the tendency of the flame to burn or lap back
was lessened, but that the hot up-current of heated air and products of
combustion streamed up to the air holes of the Bunsen, and by contaminating
the air supply caused the flame to pulsate. They then fixed an inverted cone on
the isolator to throw the products of combustion outwards and away from the
air holes, and found that the addition of this “deflecting cone” steadied the
flame. Having obtained a satisfactory flame, they attacked the problem of the
burner head. Experiments showed that the burner head must be not only open
but also of the same size or smaller than the burner tube, and that by
projecting it downwards into the mantle and leaving a space between the
mantle and the burner head the maximum mantle surface heated to
incandescence was obtained. It was also found that the distance which the
burner head projects into the mantle is equivalent to the same amount of extra
water pressure on the gas, and with a long mantle it was found useful under
certain conditions to add a cylinder or sleeve with perforated sides to carry the
gas still lower into the mantle. The principles thus set forth by Kent, Bernt and
Cérvenka form the basis of construction of all the types of inverted mantle
burners which so greatly increased the popularity of incandescent gas lighting
at the beginning of the 20th century, whilst improvements in the shape of the
mantle for inverted lighting and the methods of attachment to the burner have
added to the success achieved.

The wonderful increase in the amount of light that can be obtained from gas
by the aid of the incandescent gas mantle is realized when one compares the 1
to 3.2 candles per cubic foot given by the burners used in the middle of the
19th century with the duty of incandescent burners, as shown in the following
table:—

Light yielded per cubic foot of Gas.

Burner. Candle power.

Low pressure upright incandescent burners 15 to 20 candles
Inverted burners 14 to 21 ”
Kern burners 20 to 24 ”
High pressure burners 22 to 36 ”

(V. B. L.)

3. Electric Lighting.

Electric lamps are of two varieties: (1) Arc Lamps and (2) Incandescent or
Glow Lamps. Under these headings we may briefly consider the history,
physical principles, and present practice of the art of electric lighting.

1. Arc Lamps.—If a voltaic battery of a large number of cells has its terminal
wires provided with rods of electrically-conducting carbon, and these are
brought in contact and then slightly separated, a form of electric discharge
takes place between them called the electric arc. It is not quite certain who
first observed this effect of the electric current. The statement that Sir
Humphry Davy, in 1801, first produced and studied the phenomenon is
probably correct. In 1808 Davy had provided for him at the Royal Institution a
battery of 2000 cells, with which he exhibited the electric arc on a large scale.

The electric arc may be produced between any conducting materials

maintained at different potentials, provided that the source of electric supply is
able to furnish a sufficiently large current; but for illuminating purposes pieces
of hard graphitic carbon are most convenient. If some source of continuous
electric current is connected to rods of such carbon, first brought into contact
and then slightly separated, the following facts may be noticed: With a low
electromotive force of about 50 or 60 volts no discharge takes place until the
carbons are in actual contact, unless the insulation of the air is broken down by
the passage of a small electric spark. When this occurs, the space between the
carbons is filled at once with a flame or luminous vapour, and the carbons
themselves become highly incandescent at their extremities. If they are
horizontal the flame takes the form of an arch springing between their tips;
hence the name arc. This varies somewhat in appearance according to the
nature of the current, whether continuous or alternating, and according as it is
formed in the open air or in an enclosed space to which free access of oxygen
is prevented. Electric arcs between metal surfaces differ greatly in colour
according to the nature of the metal. When formed by an alternating current of
high electromotive force they resemble a lambent flame, flickering and
producing a somewhat shrill humming sound.

Electric arcs may be classified into continuous or alternating current arcs,

and open or enclosed arcs, carbon arcs with pure or chemically impregnated
carbons, or so-called flame arcs, and arcs formed with metallic or oxide
electrodes, such as magnetite. A continuous current arc is formed with an
electric current flowing always in the same direction; an alternating current arc
is formed with a periodically reversed current. An open arc is one in which the
carbons or other material forming the arc are freely exposed to the air; an
enclosed arc is one in which they are included in a glass vessel. If carbons
impregnated with various salts are used to colour or increase the light, the arc
is called a chemical or flame arc. The carbons or electrodes may be arranged in
line one above the other, or they may be inclined so as to project the light
downwards or more in one direction. In a carbon arc if the current is
continuous the positive carbon becomes much hotter at the end than the
negative, and in the open air it is worn away, partly by combustion, becoming
hollowed out at the extremity into a crater. At the same time the negative
carbon gradually becomes pointed, and also wears away, though much less
quickly than the positive. In the continuous-current open arc the greater part
of the light proceeds from the highly incandescent positive crater. When the arc
is examined through dark glasses, or by the optical projection of its image
upon a screen, a violet band or stream of vapour is seen to extend between
the two carbons, surrounded by a nebulous golden flame or aureole. If the
carbons are maintained at the right distance apart the arc remains steady and
silent, but if the carbons are impure, or the distance between them too great,
the true electric arc rapidly changes its place, flickering about and frequently
becoming extinguished; when this happens it can only be restored by bringing
the carbons once more into contact. If the current is alternating, then the arc
is symmetrical, and both carbons possess nearly the same appearance. If it is
enclosed in a vessel nearly air-tight, the rate at which the carbons are burnt
away is greatly reduced, and if the current is continuous the positive carbon is
no longer cratered out and the negative no longer so much pointed as in the
case of the open arc.

Davy used for his first experiments rods of wood charcoal which had been
heated and plunged into mercury to make them better conductors. Not until
1843 was it proposed by J. B. L. Foucault to employ pencils
Carbons. cut from the hard graphitic carbon deposited in the interior
of gas retorts. In 1846 W. Greener and W. E. Staite patented
a process for manufacturing carbons for this purpose, but only after the
invention of the Gramme dynamo in 1870 any great demand arose for them. F.
P. É. Carré in France in 1876 began to manufacture arc lamp carbons of high
quality from coke, lampblack and syrup. Now they are made by taking some
specially refined form of finely divided carbon, such as the soot or lampblack
formed by cooling the smoke of burning paraffin or tar, or by the carbonization
of organic matter, and making it into a paste with gum or syrup. This carbon
paste is forced through dies by means of a hydraulic press, the rods thus
formed being subsequently baked with such precautions as to preserve them
perfectly straight. In some cases they are cored, that is to say, have a
longitudinal hole down them, filled in with a softer carbon. Sometimes they are
covered with a thin layer of copper by electro-deposition. They are supplied for
the market in sizes varying from 4 or 5 to 30 or 40 millimetres in diameter, and
from 8 to 16 in. in length. The value of carbons for arc lighting greatly depends
on their purity and freedom from ash in burning, and on perfect uniformity of
structure. For ordinary purposes they are generally round in section, but for
certain special uses, such as lighthouse work, they are made fluted or with a
star-shaped section. The positive carbon is usually of larger section than the
negative. For continuous-current arcs a cored carbon is generally used as a
positive, and a smaller solid carbon as a negative. For flame arc lamps the
carbons are specially prepared by impregnating them with salts of calcium,
magnesium and sodium. The calcium gives the best results. The rod is usually
of a composite type. The outer zone is pure carbon to give strength, the next
zone contains carbon mixed with the metallic salts, and the inner core is the
same but less compressed. In addition to the metallic salts a flux has to be
introduced to prevent the formation of a non-conducting ash, and this renders
it desirable to place the carbons in a downward pointing direction to get rid of
the slag so formed. Bremer first suggested in 1898 for this purpose the
fluorides of calcium, strontium or barium. When such carbons are used to form
an electric arc the metallic salts deflagrate and produce a flame round the arc
which is strongly coloured, the object being to produce a warm yellow glow,
instead of the somewhat violet and cold light of the pure carbon arc, as well as
a greater emission of light. As noxious vapours are however given off, flame
arcs can only be used out of doors. Countless researches have been made on
the subject of carbon manufacture, and the art has been brought to great
perfection.
 Special manuals must be consulted for further information (see
especially a treatise on Carbon making for all electrical purposes, by F.
Jehl, London, 1906).

Fig. 4. Fig. 5.

The physical phenomena of the electric arc are best examined by forming a
carbon arc between two carbon rods of the above description, held in line in a
special apparatus, and arranged so as to be capable of being moved to or from
each other with a slow and easily regulated motion. An
Physical arrangement of this kind is called a hand-regulated arc lamp
phenomena. (fig. 4). If such an arc lamp is connected to a source of
electric supply having an electromotive force preferably of
100 volts, and if some resistance is included in the circuit, say about 5 ohms, a
steady and continuous arc is formed when the carbons are brought together
and then slightly separated. Its appearance may be most conveniently
examined by projecting its image upon a screen of white paper by means of an
achromatic lens. A very little examination of the distribution of light from the
arc shows that the illuminating or candle-power is not the same in different
directions. If the carbons are vertical and the positive carbon is the upper of
the two, the illuminating power is greatest in a direction at an angle inclined
about 40 or 50 degrees below the horizon, and at other directions has different
values, which may be represented by the lengths of radial lines drawn from a
centre, the extremities of which define a curve called the illuminating curve of
the arc lamp (fig. 5). Considerable differences exist between the forms of the
illuminating-power curves of the continuous and alternating current and the
open or enclosed arcs. The chief portion of the emitted light proceeds from the
incandescent crater; hence the form of the illuminating-power curve, as shown
by A. P. Trotter in 1892, is due to the apparent area of the crater surface which
is visible to an eye regarding the arc in that direction. The form of the
illuminating-power curve varies with the length of the arc and relative size of
the carbons. Leaving out of account for the moment the properties of the arc
as an illuminating agent, the variable factors with which we are concerned are
(i.) the current through the arc; (ii.) the potential difference of the carbons;
(iii.) the length of the arc; and (iv.) the size of the carbons. Taking in the first
place the typical direct-current arc between solid carbons, and forming arcs of
different lengths and with carbons of different sizes, it will be found that,
beginning at the lowest current capable of forming a true arc, the potential
difference of the carbons (the arc P.D.) decreases as the current increases. Up
to a certain current strength the arc is silent, but at a particular critical value
P.D. suddenly drops about 10 volts, the current at the same time rising 2 or 3
amperes. At that moment the arc begins to hiss, and in this hissing condition, if
the current is still further increased, P.D. remains constant over wide limits.
This drop in voltage on hissing was first noticed by A. Niaudet (La Lumière
électrique, 1881, 3, p. 287). It has been shown by Mrs Ayrton (Journ. Inst.
Elec. Eng. 28, 1899, p. 400) that the hissing is mainly due to the oxygen which
gains access from the air to the crater, when the latter becomes so large by
reason of the increase of the current as to overspread the end of the positive
carbon. According to A. E. Blondel and Hans Luggin, hissing takes place
whenever the current density becomes greater than about 0.3 or 0.5 ampere
per square millimetre of crater area.

The relation between the current, the carbon P.D., and the length of arc
in the case of the direct-current arc has been investigated by many
observers with the object of giving it mathematical expression.

Let V stand for the potential difference of the carbons in volts, A for the
current through the arc in amperes, L for the length of the arc in
millimetres, R for the resistance of the arc; and let a, b, c, d, &c., be
constants. Erik Edlund in 1867, and other workers after him, considered
that their experiments showed that the relation between V and L could be
expressed by a simple linear equation,

V = a + bL.

Later researches by Mrs Ayrton (Electrician, 1898, 41, p. 720), however,

showed that for a direct-current arc of given size with solid carbons, the
observed values of V can be better represented as a function both of A
and of L of the form

c + dL
V = a + bL + .
A

In the case of direct-current arcs formed with solid carbons, Edlund and
other observers agree that the arc resistance R may be expressed by a
simple straight line law, R = e + fL. If the arc is formed with cored
carbons, Mrs Ayrton demonstrated that the lines expressing resistance as
a function of arc length are no longer straight, but that there is a rather
sudden dip down when the length of the arc is less than 3 mm.

The constants in the above equation for the potential difference of the
carbons were determined by Mrs Ayrton in the case of solid carbons to be
—

11.7 + 10.5L
V = 38.9 + 2.07L + .
A

There has been much debate as to the meaning to be given to the

constant a in the above equation, which has a value apparently not far
from forty volts for a direct-current arc with solid carbons. The suggestion
made in 1867 by Edlund (Phil. Mag., 1868, 36, p. 358), that it implied the
existence of a counter-electromotive force in the arc, was opposed by
Luggin in 1889 (Wien. Ber. 98, p. 1198), Ernst Lecher in 1888 (Wied. Ann.,
1888, 33, p. 609), and by Franz Stenger in 1892 (Id. 45, p. 33); whereas
Victor von Lang and L. M. Arons in 1896 (Id. 30, p. 95), concluded that
experiment indicated the presence of a counter-electromotive force of 20
volts. A. E. Blondel concludes, from experiments made by him in 1897
(The Electrician, 1897, 39, p. 615), that there is no counter-electromotive
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