The most important lamps ever  

But weve seen all these pretty things before, zzzzzz.
Street lighting, lighthouses, LEDs, ancient greek oil lamps, gaslighting, I'd rather see some kind of photographic mash up. But if you want to do 'classics' don't foreget the very simple milk glass sphere. 

If you are only interested in 20th century modern design lamps/light fixtures, for the past ten years now (like others) I go to architonic.com...design collector...lighting...there are about 18 pages of lamps to look at.
I agree those simple mostly anonymous white glass globe light fixtures are the best.  They do what they are supposed to do and they do not compete with the other lamps (all white different materials, periods and styles...forgot dirt cheap) I have in the house.     

Heath: What kind of photographic mash up do you have in mind?
Minimoma: Agree there are lots of nice lamps on Architonic - but I don't think it's possible to sort by popularity or something similar there.
 

What popped into my head as I read the thread title was the paper lanterns of the Japanese and (especially) of Isamu Noguchi and (in plastic) of George Nelson.
But Heath's comment reminded me that, in the early days of electric light, progressive architects like Wright and Corbu installed plain unshaded bulbs (lamps) in certain iconic houses.  Then, Wright (at least) incorporated the milk-class sphere into fixtures he designed for, among others, the Robie house in Chicago, in 1910.
The infographics linked are great. (I'm particularly fond of the velo-coupe class of vehicles.)  But any selection of "the most important lamps ever" is going to be a subjective compilation, isn't it ?  Or maybe that's part of the subject . . .

Yes, it's definately going to be subjective. That's why I would love to hear your input, so we don't end up with a graphic that only contains our favorite lamps.

A collage that plays around with chronology, the same image illuminated by diffeent methods, tecnologies grouped by carbon footprint, something different anyway. 
I'm glad others like the white ball too, its been a favourite of mine for a long time. 

My plan was to mix chronology with drawings of the different lamps (same style as the velomobile drawings in  http://www.cykelvalg.dk/kabinecykler/  )
But if you all think it's a bit too boring, it better find a different angle for the infographic. After all, we don't want to spend a lot of time and energy on something that nobody really care about.

Your work deserves wider exposure.  Keep it up !
As a kid I coveted the 8" white globe that was the upstairs-hall fixture in our '30s residence -- without knowing how readily those glass globes could be obtained.  I finally broke down and took it, replacing it with something else, and incorporated it into a three-legged table lamp, whose shade was a conical rush-work wastebasket I had been given. It remained at my father's bedside until he died, I believe . . .
The project kept me busy as I nervously awaited freshman year at design school.
SDR