ILLUMINATION VALUES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1939, Page 6

ILLUMINATION VALUES

STANDARD CODE PREPARED. STEPS TO RELIEVE EYE-STRAIN. The performance of visual tasks with accuracy, speed, and comfort requires amounts of light which should be at least above certain minima and without glare. A Code of Illumination Values, prepared by the Illumination Committee of the Standards Institute and published as a New Zealand Standard Code, sets.out the illumination values which are considered necessary for the efficient performance of various occupations with a minimum of eye fatigue. These values have been arrived at only after thorough examination of the reports of comprehensive investigations carried out iii other countries and of the actual lighting values in use for domestic, office, and factory purposes under varying local conditions. The importance arid value of the code is indicated by authoritative reports based upon comprehensive investigation of the condition of the eyesight of young people attending schools and colleges in the United States of America, which reveal that twenty per cent of school children, forty per cent of college and university students, and se-venty-five per cent of people over fifty years of age have defective eyesight. By availing of the ready guidance afforded by this code, business, industrial, and administrative executives will benefit employees, for whose welfare they are responsible, by relieving them of" eye-strain, and its attendant physical disabilities, in addition to securing greater immunity from accidents and defective eyesight in later years. Moreover, employers—indeed, all concerned —will gain by avoiding loss of efficiency which results from unnecessary nervous strain and consequent languor imposed by defective and inadequate lighting in offices, shops, and factories. The code should also especially commend itself to architects and illumination interests whose co-operation in rendering the provisions of the New Zealand Standard Code effective will contribute to the welfare of the community to a degree not easily realised. The code consists of three parts: Part I, light and vision; Part 11, what constitutes good lighting; Part /111, the illumination values. Part HI is divided into three sub-parts:—Commercial Interiors, Industrial Interiors, Domestic Lighting. Under these headings Ihe values of illumination considered necessary for over eighty interiors are supplied in foot candles. Conies of this New Zealand Standard Code (N.Z.S.S. 170) can be obtained from the Nev/ Zealand Standards Institute, Hamilton Chambers, 201 Lambton Quay, Wellington, C.l. The price is 2s-, post free, 2s 2d. Requirements specified on the order form wilt receive immediate attention.