Do It Electrically!

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 46, 18 November 1926, Page 5

Do It Electrically!

Home Lighting. For some unaccountable reason (says a writer in “The Electrician”) electric fittings rarely figure in the list of things required in a house that is being refurnished. Tons of old-fashioned furniture and furnishings pass into the hands of second-hand dealers every year, but antiquated electroliers, like old soldiers, never die. The cause is probably due to the lack of public education by the electrical industry. They have not been taught that Victorian fittings, in addition to their ugliness, are inefficient. That would not be so bad if the same type of lighting junk were not offered to-day for sale in many English showrooms Because the public have learned from bitter experience the undesirable features of earlier illuminants, they have become willing to accept almost any kind of electric lighting without complaint. Convenience, reliability, safety, and a reasonable cost are what they expect from electric lighting, and these amenities they undoubtedly receive. Comparing the electric lighting in a home with a crude installation with that in another which contains more modern equipment, it is at once evident that, although the two installations are equally convenient, equally reliable, and equally safe, there is a vast difference in the comfort and appearance of the two by night. The public do not yet understand what an important factor lighting is in the furnishing of their homes. The principal difference between good and bad home lighting is mainly a question of modifying and controlling the raw light from the lamp. This can easily be effected by the use of sensibly designed fittings and shades. It is important that the lighting eauipment which is offered to the public should be designed on commonsense lines. It is no more correct to desion fittings for the home solely from the standpoint of their appearance than it is to design them exclusively from the standpoint of control. A wellbalanced combination of these two factors will give the desired result—pleasing and comfortable illumination.

The market for new lighting business should not be restricted to new houses. There is room for improvement in the home of almost everv existing consumer, but the public will remain ignorant of the shortcomings of their installations, unless the industry makes a serious effort to educate them. One of the surest methods of improving the illumination in a home is, to install a good light in the kitchen. This will act as a silent salesman, and, hv degrees, improvements will be marie in all the princinal rooms. The majority. of homes have kitchen lighting which is little better than that provided in the outhouses,' whereas the workshon of the home should be the best-licriited room in the house. Kitchen liahtinr' units will sell readily if thev are offered to the public and their advantages fully explained.

The writer proceeds to deni at leneth with the crude lighting in the majoritv

of bedrooms and other parts of the home which with the numerous. s P e 9 , ‘ ties on the market offer a wide held for progressive firms who know how to bring their goods before the public.

Progress in Public Lighting. Progress in public lighting was reviewed in a series of papers read at the third annual conference of the Institution of Public Lighting Engineers held in Newcastle.

In his presidential address Mr. R. Davison expressed the view that the great progress made in other fields of lighting has not been accompanied by similar advances in street lighting. Verv little progress has been made since pre-war days. Yet the great increase in motor traffic called. for new standards. It should be realised that in manv cases it was possible to improve the lighting and vet to effect savings in cost. The lighting of public higliwavs .might well receive niore.consideration.

The question of “Lighting Hours was discussed by Mr. R. Reveredge. It was pointed out that there was no regulation—similar to that applying to the lighting of vehicles—in regard to public lighting. The schedules for the period during which lamps were lighted varied in each citv. The need for some standard practice was emphasised, and the technical problems involved discussed in some detail. Mr. Harold Dickinson dealt solely with electric street lighting. He recalled that experiments were made with electric lighting as far back as 1896. But it was only in 1896 that a real be inning with Brockie-Pell arc lamps was made. To-day the original installation was not much altered, except for the substitution of gas-filled lamps for arc lamps. From 1922 onwards the mileage of streets lighted electrically had greatly increased. Gas-filled lamps of 300 W staggered on either side of the road had been introduced on tram routes, but in some of the most important streets 750 W lamps were .now used. The arrangements made for lighting arterial roads and roads in new housing estates were also described,, and the methods of diminishing public lighting after midnight explained. The average cost of lamps for all classes of lighting amounted to about f 7, and the average price of electricity for public light-' in~ worked out to 1.56 d. Another paper, by Mr. Edward Fryer (deputy-secretary, the Automobile Association) discussed “Motor Traffic in Re’ation to Lighting.” . The author recalled some of the views he had expressed at last year’s conference, emphasising the difficulty in securing continuous adequate lighting on . highways passing through areas administered by di~crent lighting authorities. Outside the large cities the lighting, authority was usually too small a unit to deal w : th the problem adequately, and more co-operation between adjacent authorities was desirable in the interests of unifo.mity. The existing legislation deal-

ing with lighting was mainly permissive. Lighting authorities had no statutory oblig tion to provide adequate public lighting. It was, however, compulsory for anyone who deposited material on a road, or made holes in it, to fence and light the obstruction during the period from sunset to sunrise. Mr. Fryer urged that it would be unfair to take an/ portion of the motorist's money for highway illumination unless they could have a guarantee that the lighting would enable the motorist to proceed without powerful headlights. But he suggested that the Ministry of Transport might be approached with a view to their conducting experiments to determine the best methods of lighting. He considered that advances in the design of lighting for private cars went .far beyond those effected in public lighting. Th. methods, consisted of side and tail lights, dipping headlamps and a fog light, and lamps for instrument board inspection and passengers’ use, enabled one to drive in safety except in very bad climatic conditions. '• But such lighting could never take the place of good illumination on the highway. , A Hint for Traders. Discussing the need for faith in the goods a trader handles, a writer in an Australian paper says :— “Recently an electrical house featuring electric vacuum cleaners found it necessary to change its display. The window dressers removed the cleaners from the window and then carefully swept the carpeted floor of the window space with a straw broom—and a power plug was handy, too. Another displayed a card informing the public of t' e splendid qualities of the vacuum cleaner exhibited, the card being neatly pinned to a dark piece of background cloth which plainly showed a month’s accumulation 6f dust. In a suburb a retail electrical shop was illuminated by one unshaded 50 <*.p. lamp, while a salesman who earns his living by selling electrical domestic appliances had shown his confidence, in his wares by carefully refraining from installing a single piece of apparatus in his home. We all know that electricity in industry means a greater output, less effort, better quality, and increased prosperity; we all know that Electricity in the home means less drudgery, more leisure, better cooking, and less work. We know that electricity ill service means economy in its truest sense. ' Our faith in these facts is based on the best possible ground—knowledge. Lt. us demonstrate that faith to the pub,ic by consistently ensuring that our shop windows, offices, and homes are, wherever possible, run on the ‘do it electrically’ plan. Some of us, in our haste to sell the appliances of the wonderful service wc represent to the public, have forgotten to first sell them to ourselves. Our field of buyers 1 embraces every jn-di-’idual in the Commonwealth. Let us foster the confidence of that field by making our own surroundings a silent testimony to our confidence in the efficiency of electricity’.”