Raging Against The Light

How my face lights up when I think of those old incandescent bulbs- I had a dream last night in which instead of the usual treasure, or lost items from my childhood I found a crate of bulbs. What guilty pleasures. Speak to me of those bulbs, O visitor from the past. How one could read a book by them and not get a headache. Dost remember- O Mistress Wysywyg- how 100 watts was 100 watts? And how bulbs fitted lamps, whereas now you might not be able to fit the base of the bulb into the opening in your old lamps.

Oh yes, as a good citizen I switched a long time ago to low energy bulbs. For 23 Watts of consumed power the new ones give out 103 of those old and less depressing Watts (1450 lumens, if you recall what those are), though in a friendlier part of the spectrum to which my rods and cones have not yet adjusted. (Well, there is probably something more natural and restful about Planckian radiation.) At this wattage I can see, though it is not particularly pleasant reading and I tend to get headaches. The electricity bills are not significantly lower, and quality of life is not enhanced.

It used to be a fiat lux moment when you turned on a light switch: illumination was up and running in a fraction of second. The bulb whose packaging is shown here has a start-up time of less than 30 seconds (well, to help you get over that shock, they call it 'Quick-start').

It is non-dimmable (thank goodness I don't have dimmers; but my adoptive father does in London). It also contains 4.5 mg of mercury. In theory such bulbs should be recycled, but we all know that not everyone is socially responsible, so that over a sufficiently long time there will be mercury leaching out at rubbish sites. I was astonished to see some immigrant workers throwing broken bulbs into normal household waste, being largely unaware and even indifferent to our island ways and the council's recycling procedures.

Of course, the bulb runs by stimulating mercury vapour to emit UV, which in turn zaps a phosphor which emits light in the visual part of the spectrum. Some of this UV escapes and some researches are asking whether the levels are dangerous or not. There is also the issue of electromagnetic radiation. If you want to make up your mind about how safe these are, just google CFL and UV and health.

Meanwhile, in a padded treasure box, I keep an old incandescent bulb from the golden age of illumination. On special days when the PC Snooper and his thought police (what dimwits) are down at the pub, we shall ceremonially remove this bulb and invite George Orwell over for a read-in with tea and biscuits. How guilty we shall feel for escaping the gloom.