Lighting the Home

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1001, 18 June 1930, Page 6

Lighting the Home

LECTURE WITH ARCHITECTS Future of Neon System A LECTURE on electricity as applied to architecture, given under the auspices of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects recently, included some interesting theories on lighting in the home. Mr. P. A. Brown, consulting electrical engineer,'was the lecturer, and lie spoke at some length on the development of Neon lighting for rl nm pet i r*

Although we in Auckland are well past the stage when electric lighting in the home consisted o£ very plain fittings and practically no other general utility outlet points, said Mr. Brown, it is surprising to see today in many homes evidence of inferior illumination and extreme scarcity oi general utility outlet points. This may be due to carelessness, false economy or other causes, but, having regard to the fact that, even in these modern days, a large part of the life of the average family is spent in the home, it is obvious that the more efficiently and attractively the home is designed for electrical operation, the better for tlje nation. GREAT CHANGES Since the Electric Lighting Act of 1881 in Great Britain there have been great changes and improvements in the electric lamp. From the original patent of a platinum filament raised to a comparatively high temperature in a vacuum, to the present day wiredrawn filament of tungsten run at a considerably higher temperature in a vacuum, filled with a selected inert gas, there have been at least four intermediate stages with gradual improvements,, of efficiency from about three watts a candle-power down to about .5 watts a candle-power. The present-day wire-drawn lamp with either frosted or pearl finish glass bulb, is a highly efficient and praeti cally successful commercial article in daily use. Recently, yet a new development has been evolved, or rather an im-

provement ou an old idea, the Claude Neon tubular lamp. Many years ago the late Sir William Crookes demonstrated in the laboratory what was then known as the “Crookes Tube.” This consisted of high pressure electrical discharge between electrodes arranged in a glass tube under high vacuum. The light produced was of a beautiful violet colour and there was little or no heat evolved. At a later stage Sir William Ramsay opened up entirely fresh ground by the discovery of the inert gases, of which argon and helium are the most widely known, and it was not long after, that the original Neon lamps of low candle-power were evolved. Unfortunately, in practice, troubles of various kinds developed at the electrodes and this particular form of lamp never became a commercial success. In 1910, however, Monsieur Claude developed a successful electrode, and in 1915 it was still further improved until today the results applied to advertising exterior work and some theatrical interior illumination speak for themselves. The system should not be judged on the use of what may appear to some, to be somewhat garish and unrestrained colour in commercial advertising, but now at last that white light is practically available for interior illumination, it does not require much imagination to visualise the home of the near future, generally illuminated with taste, refinement and restraint by such a system, concealed from direct ; vision, with, of course, local illumination for reading, or other detail work.