Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
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Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
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Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#2I was not previously aware of the origin of the ubiquitous frosted light bulb. Thanks.
> The public felt that the glare from clear transparent incandescent lamps gave off a harshness that was unwanted by most people. Another side effect was that they made it hard to see objects in immediate vicinity of the lamp. They desired a lamp that had a softer light with no glare.
The first half of the 20th century was spent figuring out how to use artificial lights safely and effectively. In the last decade we've forgotten almost everything our predecessors figured out.
For example, my father had some great hanging lights over his kitchen stove. These provided just enough light to get around the kitchen - if you wanted more light, you could turn on the other lights.
His wife redecorated and replaced the red-colored globes with clear globes. Now there is no diffusion effect, and visitors without baseball hats get the 'ice picks to the eyes' ("glare") effect from direct exposure to the filaments.
They also installed terrible 3000K LED bulbs in their new fixtures. I switched them out for proper incandescents, so I don't get headaches when I visit. The only LED bulbs I find to be acceptable are some of the 2700K bulbs. If the 3000k bulbs are shielded by a lamp shade they're tolerable, but still slightly too blue.
Old street lights were fine. LED streetlights put out more more lumens per watt, but the quality is terrible. My brother's neighborhood has been LED-ified, and now has a terrible night experience. My city has mostly orange low pressure sodium [LPS] [0] lights still, but the state highway department is gradually switching out their LPS lights for "fake white" LEDs.
Flagstaff has Lowell Observatory (astronomers). They have wonderful night lighting. A few business flaunt Flagstaff's dark sky ordinances with non-shielded floodlights, but most of the city lights and businesses' lights are a pleasant orange (or yellow), and only over-stimulate my eyes when I look directly at them.
The "lighting resource center" has information about good lighting practices: https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-vapor_lamp#Low-pressure...
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#3I was not previously aware of the origin of the ubiquitous frosted light bulb. Thanks. > The public felt that the glare from clear transparent incandescent lamps gave off a harshness that was unwanted by most people. Another side effect was that they made it hard to see objects in immediate vicinity of the lamp. They desired a lamp that had a softer light with no glare. The first half of the 20th century was spent fi…
> LED streetlights put out more more lumens per watt, but the quality is terrible. My brother's neighborhood has been LED-ified, and now has a terrible night experience.
They did this to my street about a year or two ago. It was (and still is) horrible.
I take my dog on a walk every night. Suddenly, on one of these trips, I walked out my front door and into a horrible blue-white neighborhood. It looked like a car dealership out there. Not only too bright, but also blinding because they didn't put any kind of shroud over the bulbs.
I'm acclimated to it now, but I really wish they had done some better design on these retrofits. I may not get the comforting sodium yellow back, but there's no reason to crank them up and spread the light into pedestrians' and drivers' eyes.
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#4I was not previously aware of the origin of the ubiquitous frosted light bulb. Thanks. > The public felt that the glare from clear transparent incandescent lamps gave off a harshness that was unwanted by most people. Another side effect was that they made it hard to see objects in immediate vicinity of the lamp. They desired a lamp that had a softer light with no glare. The first half of the 20th century was spent fi…
> LED streetlights put out more more lumens per watt, but the quality is terrible. My brother's neighborhood has been LED-ified, and now has a terrible night experience. They did this to my street about a year or two ago. It was (and still is) horrible. I take my dog on a walk every night. Suddenly, on one of these trips, I walked out my front door and into a horrible blue-white neighborhood. It looked like a car dea…
> I take my dog on a walk every night. Suddenly, on one of these trips, I walked out my front door and into a horrible blue-white neighborhood
That reminds me... Almost 2 years ago I responded to HN user jacobolus' comment on bad LED lights, which also included his strategy for dealing with LED streetlights while walking his dog:
"[...] After San Francisco installed some awful LED lamps on my street, I’ve taken to wearing orange safety glasses when I walk my dog, and if I had to drive with any regularity I would consider wearing orange glasses to drive at night. [...]" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14170344
I got some orange safety glasses, but they cut out too much light to be safe while driving (easy to miss pedestrians). I eventually found some yellow glasses that cut out enough blue to eliminate the shock of sudden exposure.
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#5> Not being aware his assignment was a type of joke, he went about the task as if it was something that could be done and had been done before.
I've read stories similar to this before, iirc assignments given as homework. Is there a name for this method, or comprehensive list of examples?
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
> LED streetlights put out more more lumens per watt, but the quality is terrible. My brother's neighborhood has been LED-ified, and now has a terrible night experience. They did this to my street about a year or two ago. It was (and still is) horrible. I take my dog on a walk every night. Suddenly, on one of these trips, I walked out my front door and into a horrible blue-white neighborhood. It looked like a car dea…
> I take my dog on a walk every night. Suddenly, on one of these trips, I walked out my front door and into a horrible blue-white neighborhood That reminds me... Almost 2 years ago I responded to HN user jacobolus' comment on bad LED lights, which also included his strategy for dealing with LED streetlights while walking his dog: "[...] After San Francisco installed some awful LED lamps on my street, I’ve taken to we…
Orange safety classes (mine are called "computer glasses" but I suspect they are basically the same--they filter out blue light) can also help to prevent eye strain from extended computer screen time, and in my case at least, ocular migrations.
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#7> Not being aware his assignment was a type of joke, he went about the task as if it was something that could be done and had been done before. I've read stories similar to this before, iirc assignments given as homework. Is there a name for this method, or comprehensive list of examples?
You're probably thinking of George Dantzig: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig
It's not unbelievable that this happens. Ramanujan presumably solved some important problems without knowing their context in contemporary mathematics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#8I was not previously aware of the origin of the ubiquitous frosted light bulb. Thanks. > The public felt that the glare from clear transparent incandescent lamps gave off a harshness that was unwanted by most people. Another side effect was that they made it hard to see objects in immediate vicinity of the lamp. They desired a lamp that had a softer light with no glare. The first half of the 20th century was spent fi…
I think some people must be more sensitive than others to the color temperature of light, myself included. My parents (who are otherwise wonderful people) use the 3500-4000K fluorescents in their living room instead of the much more warm and pleasant table lamps. When I walk my dog at night, I often see the blue-green glow of what must be 5000K bulbs coming from many of my neighbors houses. And my office mis-ordered bulbs for their track lights and ended up with a random mix of 3000K and 5000K bulbs; I seriously considered finding a new job until I was able to convince them to change the bulbs, but nobody else really seemed to mind.
By the way, Philips makes a line of dimmable LED bulbs that are 2700K at full brightness but go down to 2200K as they dim. Installing those in my dining room fixture was a revelatory experience.
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#9I was not previously aware of the origin of the ubiquitous frosted light bulb. Thanks. > The public felt that the glare from clear transparent incandescent lamps gave off a harshness that was unwanted by most people. Another side effect was that they made it hard to see objects in immediate vicinity of the lamp. They desired a lamp that had a softer light with no glare. The first half of the 20th century was spent fi…
LED bulbs are the worst thing. They use less energy but are just awful compared to incandescent light. I've seriously considered switching to candles or oil lamps for home at night.
Re: Marvin Pipkin, inventor of the frosted light bulb
#10I was not previously aware of the origin of the ubiquitous frosted light bulb. Thanks. > The public felt that the glare from clear transparent incandescent lamps gave off a harshness that was unwanted by most people. Another side effect was that they made it hard to see objects in immediate vicinity of the lamp. They desired a lamp that had a softer light with no glare. The first half of the 20th century was spent fi…
LED bulbs are the worst thing. They use less energy but are just awful compared to incandescent light. I've seriously considered switching to candles or oil lamps for home at night.
I got the C by GE bulbs. They are great. You can adjust their temperature all the way down to 1800K (which is why I got them) and you can dim them, all via bluetooth, so they can go into any socket. I put them in the bathrooms so that we can have an almost candlelight experience when going pee in the middle of the night.
I also got a bunch of night lights from Costco that can also do 1800K. Basically, I replaced all the nighttime lighting in my house with 1800K LED, and try to avoid white light after the kids go to bed. It's made a world of difference.