Comments on: Incandescent

By: kasturi

kasturi — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:03:50 +0000

its fungal charisma! ~ yes!

and yes, i will miss them do. thank you for memorializing incandescent bulbs

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:41:07 +0000

Light bulbs into maracas! Great idea.

Years ago my parents bought this hanging kerosene lantern enclosed by an ornate, red glass box with brass fittings. Very Victorian. To light it, you just grab a handle on the bottom and it comes down on chains and pulleys. Very cool, right? But it’s so dim, it’s completely useless. We only ever light the thing on Christmas.

By: leslee

leslee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:04:42 +0000

Somewhere around when the little girl shows up, I remembered making papier-mâché maracas from burned out light bulbs – plastered with paste-soaked newspaper strips, dried, smacked on something to break the glass inside for noise, and then painted with some colorful acrylic paints. I guess that’s something we could do with all our old bulbs.

I was searching online recently for low-light bulbs for the chandelier in my dining room and could only find incandescents that were low-light. The compact fluorescents might fit, but they were all offering bright light for low wattage. Alas the table candles aren’t bright enough to see dinner by.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:16:54 +0000

Hi Bev – It’s nice to think of you reading Via Neg on the road! Thanks for sharing the details of your vagabond-monastic lifestyle. I’ll admit I do get better sleep when I’m camping because there isn’t an internet to tempt me to stay up too late, and reading by flashlight gets old.

Drive safely.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:12:58 +0000

Glad you thought so. It really enacts a conservative to liberal twist, doesn’t it?

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:21:07 +0000

This is, yet again, one of those “wish I’d said it” essays. While the beginning was sure-footed and had me stepping right along with the nostalgia, the last para surprised me.

Nice to twist it (no bad-joke reference to the compact fluorescent shape) and make me think a bit.

By: bev

bev — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:28:58 +0000

I’m just doing a bit of catch-up reading while I have a net connection. This and your last post are super.
I was using mostly compact florescent around my house – had been experimenting with the different ones for quite some time. Have to admit that, from an aesthetic viewpoint, I still prefer incandescent light. Since going on the road, I rarely use lights at all other than LED flashlights or a rechargeable florescent lantern. I tend to live in synch with sunlight. I go to sleep when it gets dark and rise at dawn. It’s a very different existence being out here on the road where the use of energy has to be carefully considered — at least, the way I’m traveling which is usually boon-docking at dispersed campsites without use of a generator.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:33:29 +0000

Glad you liked. I had planned to write something entirely different right up until the moment I started writing. The photo made me do it.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:31:00 +0000

Don’t forget about kerosene lanterns. The ones with the circular wicks, though a bit tricky to operate, give off a very bright light. And the thing with kerosene is, you are confronted directly with the burning of a fossil fuel (and its smoke). You have to think about whether it’s really worth wasting the fuel to stay up another half an hour just to read something you’re too tired to fully absorb anyway. Beeswax candles are of course much nicer, but hard to read by.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:26:44 +0000

Thanks, Hugh. Yes on that sound: your mere mention of it sets off anticipatory nostalgia!