Memories

[Tim+]

I wonder how they deal with that in the Crown bar in Belfast?

Tim

[tabbypurr]

Nice. I spent a bit of time (not a lot) in a premises partly lit by old gas lights on mains gas, and we're not talking town gas.

Maybe they'd be happier on petrogas? I can't help wondering why that isn't used now instead of butane. They're both similarly explosive.

NT

[pete]

On 21 Apr 2018, Andrew Gabriel wrote (in article ):

A gas fitter told me years back, that gas lighting was still used by some persons who suffered from some classification of blindness or very poor sight. He said that lighting of that sort was easier on their poor eyesight. pfj

[The Natural Philosopher]

I would have thought he of all people would have understood the (complete lack of) risk...

[Roger Hayter]

There isn't a "complete lack of risk". X-ray harm may be cumulative (we think, whether there is a lower threshold of zero risk is much debated and uncertain) so why have any unnecessary dose if you may have necessary doses later in life?

And I doubt if the primitive, poorly regulated and probably poorly serviced, fluoroscopy was particularly low dose in modern terms.

[Johnny B Good]

It's 6.6W for their 470 and (if you can still find any) 510 Lm GLS lamps. The standard "A bulb" types seem ok but the smaller golf ball versions seem to suffer premature failure (from a sample of just one), presumably from overheating due to their smaller surface area.

The £2.99 1500Lm "100W incandescent equivalent" in Home Bargains (claimed to be just 12W but on test, more like 14 to 15 watts), seem to survive ok in reasonably ventilated lamp holders.

Mind you, I had my suspicions about brightness of an early one (bought just over a year ago now) confirmed by comparison with a later one bought a couple of months ago so took it back about a fortnight before the basic

12 month warranty had expired and, after being handed an LES instead of the BC version in exchange due to my taking my eye off the ball due to the importance of colour temperature matching (I wanted a warm white 2700K version which the shop appeared to have run out of), I got a refund on return of the LES version.

I managed to find a warm white BC lamp in another of their stores a week or two later. I've never been tempted to try their cool white versions since the much higher cool white colour temperature of 6500K, rather than a more reasonable 4000K or even 5500K option rather puts me off them. Now, I'm thinking that perhaps I should try at least one just to see for myself just how cool (north sky light) they actually are.

The business of the specified actual consumption of LED GLS lamps turning out to be some 10 to 15 percent higher seems to be a common feature of all the LED GLS lamps I've bought over the past 5 or 6 years. As long as that just means they're slightly over-running a 12W LED at the same 125LPW efficiency level and they're still coping with the extra dissipation ok, as they seem to do, I don't mind since that means extra light over and above the claimed, in this case 1500Lm (about 1700Lm or so) which imo, is no bad thing.

It might be an effect due to the ballast being designed to meet a minimum lumens output requirement at the lowest end of the voltage tolerance range (207vac) when run on a 240v supply (or perhaps not - I'm only guessing at a possible legitimate reason for this consistent departure between fact and fiction).

The various wattage standards for incandescent GLS lamps were the result of compromise between acceptable light levels and acceptable energy costs (we were all in the same boat, service life-wise anyway). As a result, we came to accept a much lower level of light than would have otherwise been chosen if "Price had been no object". Now that the energy costs to run lamps with higher light levels associated with 100W incandescents are only about an eighth of what they once were, we can now sensibly choose by desired light levels alone rather than a compromise between running costs and light levels.

We're still less than halfway to the 303LPW level achieved in Cree's laboratory just over four years ago now so there's the promise of even higher efficacy lamps able to match 150 and even 200 watt incandescents without overheating in a standard GLS light fitting in the next couple of years.

Contrary to what Cree's CEO of lighting development and marketing claimed about the lead time for laboratory developments only taking some

18 to 24 months to reach the shop shelves, their own development landmark chart indicates a lead time of typically ten years which, in the case of their record breaking achievement of a 303LPW lamp in the lab way back in March 2014, means we could possibly see 280 to 300 LPW GLS lamps becoming available around 2024/2025. In the meantime, we might get to see equivalents to 150W incandescent GLS lamps appearing in the shops in the next year or two and we can all look forward to a brighter future. :-)

[Terry Casey]

Another problem with the Trimphone was that it was originally supposed to be a push button phone but, due to a distinct shortage of digital exchanges, usually sported a dial instead.

Unfortunately, the Trimphone was very light weight ...

I had to go to STC at Harlow once. I walked into 'Reception' where I found just a table with a sheet of plate glass on top, under which was a sheet of paper with a list of extension numbers so that visitors could just dial the appropriate number on the Trimphone provided.

I picked up the receiver, stuck my finger into the appropriate hole in the dial and commenced to dial the firsl digit but the light weight of the phone, the strength of the dial return spring and the smooth glass surface combined so that, instead of the dial turning, the phone went flying and crashed to the floor.

I replaced the phone - fortunately still working - back on the table, laid the handset down beside it and held the phone firmly in one hand whilst dialling the extension number with the other ...

[Terry Casey]

I can remember gaslit streets in parts of the town but they were all on timers.

Virtually all railway platforms were gaslit.

The North Thames Gas Board showrooms and offices in Grays were all gaslit when I was young.

Gas lighting was common in some pubs. I remember when the Angel Hotel in Ilford was sold and a new, much smaller pub was built on the site of the old stable block at the back. Although this would have been in the late 70s (or possibly the early 80s), the bar was gas lit. However, the lowish ceiling meant that the lamps were only just above head height.

I was in there one day, waiting to be served and a lad of about 20 was attracted by the hissing noise over his head. Eventually, he couldn't resist giving this strange device a physical examination! As the mantle didintegrated betreen his finger and thumb he emitted a strangulated curse as the badly burned digits were hastily plunged into his mouth.

"Never seen a gas lamp before?", I asked. There was ahake of the head and a noise I took to be a 'no' was forced out around his finger and thumb!

[Terry Casey]

Not just Woolworth's. Most, if not all, shops tested them and all bulbs were packed that way. In the days when bulbs were kept behind the counter, that style of packing was more than adequate. Even for Woolworth's self service style because there was always someone behind the counter keeping a watchful eye on things.

Yes, I remember that, too.

[Graeme]

In message , Terry Casey writes

My Grandparents had a wall mounted gas light in their kitchen, which was rarely used, but useful during electricity power cuts. During the great North Sea gas conversion, the man from the gas board converted it for them, without hesitation, and it still worked when they died years later.

[Terry Casey]

And if you've thrown out all your old copies of WW, you can relive the past with this fantastic archive:

or

m

They also have archived copies of Practical Wireless, Electronics, Television and Radio Constructor plus many more titles.

[Bob Eager]

Wow! Thanks.

I used to have my bound copies of Wireless World. Not sure what happened to them.

[Bob Eager]

Wasn't that also the phone where covering up the microphone with the hand made sod all difference, because there was only one transducer, and a plastic pipe joining the grilles in each end?

[Johnny B Good]

I've just downloaded the January and February 1977 issues. This looks like a full evening's project in the making (downloading the lot!). :-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Early push button phones converted to the same pulses as a dial. I had an early BT one with 10 number memory. The re-chargeable battery (charged off the line) kept failing.

[tabbypurr]

the mantles were pretty toxic too,

NT

[tabbypurr]

It had a plastic pipe because the mic end was too thin to accommodate the then huge mics. But it still had 2 transducers.

NT

[Johnny B Good]

It looks to be about 1.5GB's worth alone just for the decade I'm interested in (1975 to 1985). Now, let's see... The whole archive might be another 15 to 20GB... Doable, quite doable! :-)

[Max Demian]

Some of them contained radioactive thorium.

[Bob Eager]

Indeed. My download quota is 2TB/month...off I go.