Why Are So Many Taranaki Farmhouses Poorly Illuminated?

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 30 (Supplement)

Why Are So Many Taranaki Farmhouses Poorly Illuminated?

If electricity can be regaxded as the modern slave it yet has impersonal disadvanjages in that it works only where end when it is directed. Moreover its output is strictly restricted by the nature of the task it has to perform. For inetance, if it is set to light six globes of 50 candlepower, it lights . only six and no amount of grumbling will prevail upon this marvellous servant to illuminate in any greater degree than the preecribed 50 candlepower. Thus, the value of electricity to the farms and farmhouses of Taranaki is governed by the intelligence displayed in preparing the various circuitous courses along which slave electricity must race. If these circuits are not frequent enough and if the work to be done is less than the energy available — well, do not blame the slave. "Tf a friendly inspection was to be made of all the farm houses in Taranaki, most of them would be found poorly lighted. In comparison with the oil larnp and candle all of them would be brilliantly illuminated, but according to modern standards many of the points have been placed with a view to the utmost economy rather than the utmost advantage. There are seldom enough lights to suit the size of a room and the globes hanging in their sockets are usually less

than the power demanded by the size of the room. Good sight and good light are interdependent. Too often people try to do fine work or follow close reading under inferior illumination. To those people it will be something of a shock to learn that the light near a window on a summer's day is equal to about 200 footcandles. Contrast this with the eyestrain in continuing the same work under a 50 candle-power globe, often badly reflected and often poorly placed in relation to the worker. Another important point generally overlooked is the tendancy of even the best globes to»wear out. People who do not expect a suit of suit of clothes, a pair of shoes, or the valves in a radio set to last for ever are content with the same electric light globes as long as they will light up when the switch is depressed. In short, it pays farmers' families, as it pays townspeople, to maintain the lighting of their homes at full strength and in first-class condition. From the point of view of economy, it is well to remember that renewal of lamps means a saving in current. An old lamp gives its light only at the cost of a disproportionate record on the meter. It should be discarded before it reaches the "greedy" stage through a heavy appetite for current.