The Ever Expanding Use of Light

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It wasn’t so long ago that people lived by daylight alone. When the sun came up the rooster would sound and farmers would get up and till the land. Then people started lighting things. First there were camp fires in caves. Then someone came up with torches in caves, later whale oil was used to light carry able lanterns that could light a room of a house. Then in big cities, street lights were installed illuminating the streets by natural gas.  Finally during the 1800’s incandescent light bulbs, light bulbs that use electricity to provide light were introduced.

These days you don’t only find Incandescent bulbs but florescent and led lights. These newer lights, more expensive lights, florescent and led lights, last years, instead of a few months. But what it fascinating is how well we have adapted to this new form of light.

We have increased our productivity. Now instead of going to sleep when it gets dark we stay up in the late hours working or partying. It has meant new research into how much sleeps a person really needs: 8 hours would be ideal. And, are we using this new light environmentally sound. In the old days light took a lot more energy to light rooms in a house or building.

With the introduction of florescent bulbs that energy was reduced. The bulbs could stay in longer and could still stay lit even as it started to go bad. So you kind of knew early on it would need to be replaced. Now there are LED’s. These are lights that can stay lit for 10 years at a time. It may end up replacing incandescent and florescent bulbs. They are expensive too but not having to worry about replacing a bulb for 10 years does sound fascinating.

Plus they use even less energy than a florescent bulb. And there is no telling what new research will find to replace the LED with. It is amazing how far we have come since living in a cave obeying daylight for work and sleep. Now the problem is that people are not getting enough sleep.

But the fact remains that without artificial light we never would have made it this far. Artificial light made scientist able to work late into the night coming up with new gadgets that help mankind. So in a way all the producers of the light bulb have helped create other inventions.

What other invention can claim that? Here is an invention that has helped in invention creation. That is what I call, nice.