Lighting

From open flame torches to candles and oil lamps, we have found ways to illuminate our space. By the early part of the eighteen hundreds, large parts of England had adopted a new way to provide light in the form of the gaslight. Powered by methane or coal gas, gaslights were a big improvement over candles and oil.

We have come a long way since the days of the gaslight. The incandescent light bulb and the modern fluorescent light are just some of the ways lighting, both interior and exterior has advanced. In recent years, the emphasis has been on reducing energy consumption without sacrificing quality and output. The cost of energy has driven some fairly high tech approaches and solutions to illuminating our homes.

The humble gaslight was a vast improvement over what had been the use of candles and oil lamps. Candles burned away and oil lamps needed to be refilled. The availability of natural gas made lighting more of a convenience and less of a chore. While it is true that gaslights needed to be turned off and on, the convenience combined with its drastically lower cost, made gaslights very practical. One problem that took time to overcome was the presence of impurities in the gas and several methods of filtering and purification were developed.

Even today, the proper installation of a natural appliance must include a section of pipe called a drip leg. The drip leg allows particulate matter to accumulate in a kind of plumbers blind alley. The removal of particulate matter ensures that critical valves and orifices will not become plugged or blocked.

The lighting of public streets became common during the eighteen hundreds with natural gas eventually being supplied to private homes. The city of Baltimore was the first city in America to have gas street lighting. The availability of gas grew throughout the eighteen hundreds and so did its application as a lighting source. The use of gaslights would continue until another very important technological development that would change our lives in ways beyond just lighting our homes and streets.

The early nineteen hundreds saw the introduction of electric lighting though it would be many decades before electricity found its way into rural America.

City dwellers in America took the availability of electricity for granted. Meanwhile on farms and in many small towns, reliable old standbys like oil lamps and gaslights were in use until the middle of the twentieth century. The creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority made electrification of rural America a reality for millions of people. Electric lighting became widespread but the basic technology would no change for quite some time.

Much of the household lighting in world still relies on the incandescent light bulb. The technology of incandescence has not change much over the years. The basics rely on passing an electrical current through a metal filament. In order for the filament to glow, it must be in the gas filled vacuum of the bulb. Even though manufacturers have tried to design light bulbs that lasted longer or were more efficient, there is a limit to the incandescent technology.

Fluorescent lighting is quickly overtaking the incandescent bulb as the standard for interior and exterior lighting. Fluorescent lights are known for producing more usable light while consuming less electricity. The savings has been shown to be significant since fluorescents consume only about twenty five percent of the electricity used by a comparable incandescent light. In this age of higher costs, the savings has shown to be very important in making the case for switching to fluorescent lighting.

Critics of fluorescent lighting argue that the light produced is too stark and not as soft as the light produced by incandescent bulbs. Manufacturers of responded with compact fluorescent bulbs which produce a softer, more natural lighting effect. Fluorescent lighting has another significant advantage over incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent lighting emits a wider spectrum of light.