Abstract
THE summer school of electrical housecraft recently paid a visit to the Lighting Service Bureau of the Electric Lamp Manufacturers' Association. Mr. W. J. Jones laid stress on the need for adequate light in the home for reading and for carrying out domestic tasks. Practical demonstrations were given to prove his statements. He showed how good lighting helps the eye to see quickly, and hence under favourable conditions a task can be performed with greater accuracy and in less time. When a gramophone turntable with a disk of white cardboard marked by two intersecting lines is made to revolve, its speed seems to increase as the amount of light thrown on the disk is reduced. Actually the speed is kept constant, but so effective is the maximum illumination in reducing the apparent speed of the disk that it is difficult to believe that the speed keeps constant. When the disk is brightly lit, the eye has little difficulty in following the rotation of the lines, whereas when badly lit a confused whirl only is seen. The absorption power of decorations was demonstrated and the importance of using extra light to counteract the effects of a dark colour scheme or of decorations was insisted on. A talking film entitled the “Science of Seeing” has been prepared by the Bureau for loan to schools, etc. During his lecture, Mr. Jones asked his audience to choose the amount of light for the most comfortable seeing conditions in the lecture theatre. This was done by raising and lowering the lighting. Individual members chose illuminations lying between 20 and 75 foot-candles.
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Domestic Lighting. Nature 138, 795 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138795a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138795a0