Category: lamp

Most have witnessed Fred Astaire singing in the rain while dancing around a street lamp with Ginger Rogers but many do not realize the changes the lowly street lamp has undergone over its lifetime. From gas lights brightening the way along the walkways to the sodium filled arc light sources, the street lamp has come a long way since the late 1800 s.

In 1816, the city of Baltimore introduced gas street lighting, borrowing the idea from Britain, and lamp lighters were employed to travel the streets to light the lamps each night. Attala, Alabama became the first to use the electric street lamp in 1882, thanks to the new invention of Thomas Edison. In the early 19th century, a white way was considered a street that had street lights.

Some of the first electric street lamps were carbon arc lights, which cast a brilliant light and were useful in dock areas and other commercial facilities, but the brilliance of the light was not conducive to use in residential areas. Incandescent lighting, still widely used today, replaced the arc light, which also came with a high cost of maintenance.

Dangers Posed By Street Lamp Installation

While the benefits of the street lamp seem to be overwhelming for pedestrian safety, there are a couple of dangers posed by them, and the installation of street lamps usually take them into consideration. A bright street lamp can reduce a driver s night vision as the eyes automatically adjust to the presence of light.

When a person goes from a dark street into an area with street lights, their eyes make the adjustment and if plunged back into darkness when the street lights end, their eyes will take some time to readjust to the darkness. Additionally, the pole to which the street lamp is attached can become a crash hazard. They should be designed to break away on collision or be guarded by a guard rail or other device.

Light pollution is a common complaint, especially in residential areas where a street lamp may be placed close to a residence causing light to shine through windows. They also tend to shade the visibility of dim stars or other constellations, complaining complains from amateur astrologers living in a city setting.

Beacon lights are typically used at intersections to help motorists see the intersecting roads as well as street signs, while roadway lights are not intended to allow cars to travel without lights. Headlights are for that purpose, rather they are used to allow sight of hazards outside the normal view of the headlights.

While few people can explain any health benefits for an increase in negative ions, there is little argument that a salt lamp makes people begin to feel better. They credit their feelings to the negative ions being released when the salt in their salt lamp is heated.

Essentially, a salt lamp is a block of mined salt hollowed out with a candle or some other light source inserted into the hollow space. The light is refracted as it passes through the salt block creating a beautiful distortion as it passes through and the heated salt also is said to give off negative ions, usually referred to simply as ions, to improve a persons health.

While the health benefit claims remain unproven, people who use a salt lamp have no doubt of their benefits. At the very least, the sights of the light from a salt lamp coupled with the warm salt smell can provide a soothing effect to help reduce stress. Colors of salt frequently used in lamps ranges from a pink or salmon color to a pale orange color. Usually, the salt is mined in Russia, central Europe or the Himalayas.

Ions Work As Air Cleaners

It has been noted that the negative ions created by the heating of the salt lamp combines with pollution in the air to make them too heavy to stay aloft and they fall to the ground where they are unable to be inhaled. This, it is claimed, is what makes the air healthier by using a salt lamp.

While the rock salt used in a salt lamp is considered block salt, they have been finely modeled into many different shapes during the hollowing process to create a decorative piece and not just a chunk of salt hollowed out to hold a candle. Their coloring will be unique and it would be difficult to find two pieces exactly the same shape and with the same colors.

Large lamps can be found that weight upwards of 250 pounds with a big lamp considered to be between 50 and 100 pounds. A small salt lamp may weigh around three or four pounds and go all the way to just under 50 pounds. The ionizing range varies based on the size of the lamp. A mini salt lamp of about four pounds may ionize the air in about a six foot radius while a large 40 pound salt lamp offers a range of over 35 feet radius.