Energy Saver News; WattBusters - Let There Be Light

THE SUN

When we talk about light, we have to look at both natural and man-made varieties. At the top of the list is old Sol, the Sun. We take him for granted because he pops up over the horizon every morning (except maybe in Michigan in the winter...) and he's just 'there'. It's pretty amazing when you think of the Sun as just one of billions of stars that just happens to be the right size and distance to light and heat our world. A little larger, we're toast, a little farther away and we're peop-sickles. This abridged lighting history reveals some of the quest to extend light into our lives during the night hours and into places where it can't naturally penetrate.

Sun Facts:
Diameter = 865,400 Miles
Average Surface Temperature = Approx. 10000 degrees Fahrenheit
Temperature at Core: 22.5 million Fahrenheit
Earth's Average Orbit Distance = 93,210,000 Miles
Mass: 330,000 x Earth
Luminosity: 390 billion billion megawatts

FIRE

It is believed by some that fire was first created by lightning. Caveman saw the fire and was attracted to it. Maybe they would have thought that a part of the sun had broken off and fallen to earth. Although caveman did not know how to create fire himself by using friction or flint until about 7000B.C., fire was used to keep warm, cook and illuminate. After the transportation of fire was solved, it was occasionally borrowed, and while the meaning is lost, the phrase is still used when one says: "May I borrow a light?"

To preserve fire, it was first buried and preserved in the ashes of the fire itself. Then came a type of Slow-Match. That's when some soft inner barks from trees are teased and spun into cord that will smoulder slowly when lighted. Later, when man worked with metals, the "curfew", or "fire-cover" was invented. Hot coals would be raked together and the metal curfew would be set over them to preserve the fire until morning. Back in 1068, during the reign of William the Conqueror, bells would be rung by law at seven in the evening so that all might cover the fire and extinguish the lights. This also prohibited night time meetings. Curfews today which prohibit juveniles from being out after a certain time have their roots in this old custom.

When possible, a communal fire was placed in front of a rock shelter or cave; in a place safe and convenient for the use of everyone. The necessity for a screen to protect the early bonfires from the wind may have been the reason for the round form of house thought to be the earliest. Later individual fires were built in the center of the family shelters, where the hearth became known as the chimney. The chimney was the center of home life providing both heat and illumination.

CANDLES

When man first discovered how to use fire to cook with, he began to notice that the fat dripping into the fire caused it to burn brighter. With a little deductive reasoning he probably realized that he could use this animal fat to light his dwelling. The first 'candles' were probably nothing more than flaming lumps of animal fat. The candle probably evolved from wood, rushes (plants), or cords dipped in fat.

It would be almost impossible to attempt to date the origin of candles because the existing evidence is inconclusive as to the candles' history. Initially, candles were made from tallow. Tallow is the solid fat extracted from animals, especially from cattle or sheep. We do know that remains of candles were found in excavations in Greece and Egypt. These remains were closely dated at around 3000 B.C. It was not until the emergence of the Roman Empire that scientists began to see evidence of the development of candles as we know them today. The Roman method was simply to heat the tallow until it liquefied. Next the tallow was poured over a wick material, usually made from the pith of rushes, which was suspended from a horizontal rod. As it was poured, the candle maker would use his hands to smooth the cooling tallow. A trough underneath the suspended candles would catch the excess and would then be returned to the melting pot. The Romans used candles not only to light their homes and to facilitate traveling at night, but also for their religious practices.

The practice of using molds to make candles began in the 15th century in France. The wax was poured into hollow open-ended cylinders. These cylinders had a cap with a small hole in the center for the wick. The wick was then placed in the mold and held in place by small wires. Once the mold was filled the wicks were pulled taunt and the wax left to cool. And the wires were removed.

In the 1820s braided wicks were being used along with stearic acid. This chemical is a by-product of fat and was blended into the wax to harden it. This created candles that burned longer. During this time period Spermaceti was also being used in making candles. Spermaceti is a solid waxy substance taken from the head of the sperm whale. In America this was supplemented with Bayberry, a vegetable wax.

By the mid 19th century the Industrial Revolution had transformed the way candles were made. Paraffin had begun to replace the venerable tallow. However, handmade candles were still in demand, especially candles made for religious activities. Many of these had to be custom made.

Today, most candles are machine made by a molding process. As an art form, candlemaking still survives in our modern world. The symbolism associated with candles is entrenched forever in our minds. It represents religion, joy, sadness, and sacrifice.

OIL LAMPS

Oil lamps were used when ancient civilizations flourished. Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans had simple pottery or metal lamps made up of a reservoir, a burner opening or nozzle, an air inlet and a wick. A woven or braided wick was discovered at an early date to give more satisfactory results than burning the oil fuel direct. These old lamps were the first in a long series of evolutionary steps which finally produced the incandescent mantle lamp as known today.

The fuel used in these early lamps and for many centuries afterwards was oil derived from animal or vegetable sources. The illuminating power was so low that candles were preferred and were employed as indoor illuminants until well into the nineteenth century, when the discovery of mineral oil gave a fresh impetus to the development of lamps.

GAS LIGHT

The first practical use of gas in modern times was for street lighting. When William Murdock, a British engineer and inventor, lighted his cottage with manufactured gas in 1792, he literally opened up a whole new industry and changed the living habits of the civilized world. By 1798, he had developed his invention to a point where he was using manufactured gas to light his entire factory. And in 1804, Murdock built a gas works to light a large cotton mill in Manchester, England, with 900 burners.

The first public street lighting with gas took place in Pall Mall in London on January 28, 1807. In 1812, Parliament granted a charter to "The London & Westminster Gas Light & Coke Co.," and the first gas company in the world came into being. A few years later, on December 31, 1813, the Westminster Bridge was lighted by gas.

Following the success, gas lighting spread to other countries. In the United States, Baltimore in 1816 was the first city to light its streets with gas. In 1820, Paris adopted gas street lighting.

The first introduction of gas lights in Rembrandt Peale's Museum in Baltimore in 1816 proved to be such a sensation and success that Peale quickly organized a gas company to light the city. The city council passed an ordinance June, 1816, permitting Peale to manufacture gas, lay pipes in the streets, and contract with the city for street lighting. This was the first gas company founded in the United States.

Use of natural gas in America came into being in Fredonia, New York, in 1820, when the first gas well was drilled to a depth of 27 feet. Industrious citizens hustled the gas into town via lead pipelines.

Shortly after the excitement of its discovery, Fredonia played host to an illustrious French nobleman, the Marquis de LaFayette, Revolutionary War hero and personal friend of George Washington. LaFayette marveled that all the streets of the town were completely lighted by gas. He was even more amazed to sit down to a gas-cooked dinner served in his honor.

In 1858, Fredonia went on to establish the first recorded corporation to serve natural gas to business and residential customers.

Fredonia's discovery of natural gas opened the rapid expansion of the industry in the decades that followed. Manufactured gas was in wide use too, in the later years of the 19th Century. At Shreveport, gas mains were in the streets as early as 1859. In Little Rock, the first gas street light went up in 1888.

During the decade from 1865 to 1875, the use of gas for lighting as well as for cooking made significant progress. Soon much of America, as well as other countries, was lighted by gas. The lamp lighter became a familiar figure, and the streets at night took on a warm, friendly glow.

In nostalgic memory, the "Gaslight Era" as a period of unhurried, gracious living, was never to be forgotten.

INCANDESCENTS

Thomas Edison invented the first commercially practical incandescent electric lamp. The lamp itself was perfected on October 21st, 1879, and it embodied the principles known as the "Edison modern incandescent lamp." This bulb maintained its incandescence for over 40 hours.

Although Edison was first to invent a viable, commercially practical bulb, there were many others working in the same direction. Below is a list of Edison 'precursors' which will give you an idea of just how long the incadescent technology has been around.

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1809 - Humphry Davy, an English chemist, invented the first electric light. Davy connected two wires to a battery and attached a charcoal strip between the other ends of the wires. The charged carbon glowed making the first arc lamp.
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1820 - Warren De la Rue enclosed a platinum coil in an evacuated tube and passed an electric current through it. His lamp design worked but the cost of the precious metal platinum made this an impossible invention for wide-spread use.
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1835 - James Bowman Lindsay demonstrated constant electric lighting system using a prototype lightbulb.
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1850 - Edward Shepard invented an electrical incandescent arc lamp using a charcoal filament. Joseph Wilson Swan started working with carbonized paper filaments the same year.
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1854 - Henricg Globel, a German watchmaker, invented the first true lightbulb. He used a carbonized bamboo filament placed inside a glass bulb.
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1875 - Herman Sprengel invented the mercury vacuum pump making it possible to develop a practical electric light bulb, making a really good vacuum inside the bulb possible.
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1875 - Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans patented a lightbulb.
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1878 - Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914), an English physicist, was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electric lightbulb (13.5 hours). Swan used a carbon fiber filament derived from cotton.
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1879 - Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours. Edison placed his filament in an oxygenless bulb. (Edison evolved his designs for the lightbulb based on the 1875 patent he purchased from inventors, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans.)
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1880 - Edison continued to improve his lightbulb until it could last for over 1200 hours using a bamboo-derived filament.
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1903 - Willis Whitnew invented a filament that would not make the inside of a lightbulb turn dark. It was a metal-coated carbon filament (a predecessor to the tungsten filament).
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Incandescent technology became commercially available 125 years ago and it's still the most widely used illumination method in the world. Because only about 80% of the electric power delivered to the bulb becomes thermal radiation and only about 12% of that thermal radiation is visible, an incandescent light bulb is only about 10% energy efficient. An incandescent light bulb works by heating a solid filament so hot that the filament's thermal radiation spectrum includes large amounts of visible light. Even the visible light it gives off is actually thermal radiation (heat). Incandescent bulbs do produce light but after 125 years there are much more efficient ways to attain illumination.

COMPACT FLUORESCENTS

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use about 1/4 of the energy as incandescents to produce the same light output (lumens). They last much, much longer than incandescents so you don't have to climb up and change them as often. Unlike incandescents, they are not dependent on thermal radiation (heat) to produce their light and are much cooler to the touch. Special models are now available to fill everyday needs such as 3-way bulbs, dimmable spirals and reflectors. They fit the bill as a worthy replacement to the venerable, though outdated invention of Thomas Edison.