Hello all!
I recently found a site that features articles scanned from older issues
of magazines like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, etc. It is at
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/ . A few of the articles on lighting
topics might be particularly interesting here:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/02/29/modern-magic-in-light/
"Modern Magic in Light" from October 1927 describes GE's Edison Lighting
Institute. Some interesting figures and statements from the article:
Electricity was about 6.7 cents per kilowatt hour in 1927 dollars (equal
to something like 77 cents a kilowatt hour in 2007 dollars). "...the
ordinary home lamp of 40 watts yields about ten lumens per watt..." "In
vacuum lamps only eight percent and in gas-filled lamps twenty-five
percent of energy is dissipated as heat. Most of the power escapes as
below-red and above-violet unseen rays, leaving us a small fraction of
useful illumination." White light is claimed to have a theoretical
maximum efficiency of 265 lumens per watt, while yellow-green light is
620 lumens per watt. As far as I can tell, they don't talk about
mercury-vapor lamps (which I think were commercially available at the
time) or fluorescent lamps (which were a couple of years away from the
market) at all.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/28/flood-lights-revealing-beauties-of-night/
"Flood-Lights Revealing Beauties of Night" from May 1924 is not as
technical as the above article, but does have some interesting tidbits:
it cost $125 a night (1924; about $1500 in 2007) to run 475 lamps with
a total output of 22 million candlepower from sunset till midnight.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/04/21/living-light-effects-marvel-of-world-fair/
"Living Light Effects Marvel of World Fair" from July 1932 describes
special-effects lighting for the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago in a
reasonable amount of detail - not so much on the technical specs of the
lamps, but more on how the effects/fixtures/shades are built.
There isn't a specific category for "lighting"; I found all three of the
above articles in the "Sign of the Times" category. There are probably
more articles lurking around.
Standard disclaimers apply: I don't get money or other consideration
from any sites mentioned.
Matt Roberds
I recently found a site that features articles scanned from older issues
of magazines like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, etc. It is at
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/ . A few of the articles on lighting
topics might be particularly interesting here:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/02/29/modern-magic-in-light/
"Modern Magic in Light" from October 1927 describes GE's Edison Lighting
Institute. Some interesting figures and statements from the article:
Electricity was about 6.7 cents per kilowatt hour in 1927 dollars (equal
to something like 77 cents a kilowatt hour in 2007 dollars). "...the
ordinary home lamp of 40 watts yields about ten lumens per watt..." "In
vacuum lamps only eight percent and in gas-filled lamps twenty-five
percent of energy is dissipated as heat. Most of the power escapes as
below-red and above-violet unseen rays, leaving us a small fraction of
useful illumination." White light is claimed to have a theoretical
maximum efficiency of 265 lumens per watt, while yellow-green light is
620 lumens per watt. As far as I can tell, they don't talk about
mercury-vapor lamps (which I think were commercially available at the
time) or fluorescent lamps (which were a couple of years away from the
market) at all.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/28/flood-lights-revealing-beauties-of-night/
"Flood-Lights Revealing Beauties of Night" from May 1924 is not as
technical as the above article, but does have some interesting tidbits:
it cost $125 a night (1924; about $1500 in 2007) to run 475 lamps with
a total output of 22 million candlepower from sunset till midnight.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/04/21/living-light-effects-marvel-of-world-fair/
"Living Light Effects Marvel of World Fair" from July 1932 describes
special-effects lighting for the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago in a
reasonable amount of detail - not so much on the technical specs of the
lamps, but more on how the effects/fixtures/shades are built.
There isn't a specific category for "lighting"; I found all three of the
above articles in the "Sign of the Times" category. There are probably
more articles lurking around.
Standard disclaimers apply: I don't get money or other consideration
from any sites mentioned.
Matt Roberds
