avoid introducing significant heat losses. For these properties, chemical inertness and high atomic or molecular weight is desirable. The presence of gas molecules knocks the liberated tungsten atoms back to the filament, reducing its evaporation and allowing it to be operated at higher temperature without reducing its life (or, for operating at the same temperature, prolongs the filament life). On the other hand, the presence of the gas leads to heat loss from the filament—and therefore efficiency loss due to reduced incandescence—by heat conduction and heat convection. Early lamps used only a vacuum to protect the filament from oxygen. The vacuum increases evaporation of the filament but eliminates two modes of heat loss. Some small modern lamps use vacuum as well. The most commonly used fills are: Vacuum, used in small lamps. Provides best thermal insulation of the filament but does not protect against its evaporation. Used also in larger lamps where the outer bulb surface temperature has to be limited. Argon (93%) and nitrogen (7%), where argon is used for its inertness, low thermal conductivity and low cost, and the nitrogen is added to increase the breakdown voltage and prevent arcing between parts of the filament Nitrogen, used in some higher-power lamps, e.g. projection lamps, and where higher breakdown voltage is needed due to proximity of filament parts or lead-in wires Krypton, which is more advantageous than argon due to its higher atomic weight and lower thermal conductivity (which also allows use of smaller bulbs), but its use is hindered by much higher cost, confining it mostly to smaller-size bulbs. Krypton mixed with xenon, where xenon improves the gas properties further due to its higher atomic weight. Its use is however limited by its very high cost. The improvements by using xenon are modest in comparison to its cost. Hydrogen, in special flashing lamps where rapid filament cooling is required; its high thermal conductivity is exploited here. Halogen, a small amount mixed with inert gas. This is used in halogen lamps, which are a distinct type of incandescent lamp. The gas fill must be free of traces of water, which greatly accelerates bulb blackening (see below). The gas layer close to the filament (called the Langmuir layer) is stagnant, with heat transfer occurring only by conduction. Only at some distance does convection occur to carry heat to the bulb's envelope. The orientation of the filament influences efficiency. Gas flow