incandescence

We would need need also a source of light, but spontaneous incandescence of a softer matherial should be easy to achieve.

My chief difficulty, as perhaps you know, was in constructing the carbon filament, the incandescence of which is the source of the light."Exactly.

Something to do with the electromagnetic heating of the wire being quicker than the energy capture and incandescence of the air?

"In 1761, Ebenezer Kinnersley demonstrated heating a wire to incandescence.

It was beyond anything I could imagine in terms of the brilliancy and incandescence that it had, but also a sense that there was incredible intelligence, creative intelligence going beyond any dichotomies.

"Perpetual motion," on the one hand, is quackery outlawed by straightforward thermodynamics, breaking the rules of which allows assertions like "chair seats and door handles should be spontaneously heating up to incandescence essentially at random.

Photoelectric cells were invented before we understood the photoelectric effect, alcohol and preserves were used to store drinks and foodstuffs before we understood microbes, forging and annealing used before anyone had a theory on metallic crystal formation, and incandescence was used before anyone understood electromagnetic radiation; to name but a few examples.