Posted on 01/16/2011 11:31:27 AM PST by Kaslin
Why is Paris known as the City of Lights ? Is it because the U.S. Congress banned Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulbs, so he had to take his invention offshore?
Well, not actually. Thomas Edison was an honoree at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition and he did go up in the Eiffel Tower . The Italian government conferred a knighthood at that event on the man who gave the world a brighter idea.
No, Congress in the 1880s would not have been so foolish as to extinguish Edison ’s light bulb. But the liberal Congress in 2007 was so foolish. They passed (and, regrettably, President George W. Bush signed) the BULB Act. That cutesy acronym stood for the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act. By that act, incandescent light bulbs were to have been phased out by 2014.
The BULB Act was co-sponsored by Calif. Rep. Jane Harmon (D) and Michigan Rep. Fred Upton (R). Back in those halcyon days of green legislation, of cost-free environmentalism, few people noticed that one of America ’s greatest inventions was about to be banned by act of Congress.
Liberals were, quite literally, turning lights out on America --at least the incandescent kind. Edison ’s invention was being treated like asbestos and lead paint. But once consumers got wind of the coming ban, they began hoarding “real” light bulbs.
Soon, documented stories began circulating highlighting negative aspects of the new, eco-friendly compact fluorescent light (CFL) light bulbs. It was as if the Congress had tried to insert a CFL—Canadian Football League—championship game in place of the Super Bowl.
Heritage Foundation researchers Kelsey Huber and Nicholas D. Loris alerted readers of Human Events that CFLs use high levels of mercury. They may last longer than real bulbs, but watch out if you break one or discard it. CFLs, Huber and Loris noted, can also cause migraines and aggravate epilepsy! What does this say about forcing them on health care providers?
Even the New York Times conceded that government nannying had failed to persuade consumers to shift from incandescents. The reason: they are cheap.
Many voters last fall were incandescent in their outrage of Congress’ meddling with the economy, with people’s way of life—and livelihoods. U.S. factories that make incandescent bulbs were shutting down, laying off American workers, only to have China pick up the slack.
Rush Limbaugh took up the conservative cudgels. When Michigan Congressman Upton rode back into office on the Republican tide last fall, Rush pointed to the BULB Act as Exhibit A in the case against Upton’s becoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“This would be a tone-deaf disaster if the Republican leadership lets Fred Upton ascend to the chairmanship of the House energy committee,” Rush told his millions of listeners.
“This is exactly the kind of nannysim, statism…that was voted against and defeated [in the Midterm elections.]”
Three House Republicans—Joel Barton ( Texas ), Marsha Blackburn ( Tenn. ), and Michael Burgess (Texas) went so far as to introduce legislation to repeal the BULB Act. Fred Upton not only co-sponsored the BULB Act, but he amassed a record of liberalism on social and economic issues. He even messed with Daylight Saving Time! Now, that’s really liberal.
Mr. Upton managed to slip into the chairman’s seat in the run-up to the 112th Congress, but only by signaling a new openness to changing the BULB Act. “We have heard from the grassroots loud and clear, and will have a hearing early next Congress,” Upton said. “The last thing we wanted to do was infringe upon personal liberties—and this has been a good lesson that Congress does not always know best…” Well, if Mr. Upton didn’t see the light, he surely felt the heat.
In banning the incandescent light bulb, Congress substituted its own judgment for the wishes of the American people. They specifically backhanded the American consumer.
They did something else, and this is perhaps the worst thing they did: They spurned the achievement of one of America ’s greatest geniuses. In 1914, when “the lights went out all over Europe ,” the U.S. Patent Office announced that Thomas Alva Edison had patented a new idea at the rate of one every two weeks for nearly 40 years! No wonder the home-schooled Edison was called “the wizard of Menlo Park .”
Edison left a brilliant legacy—patenting not only the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture machine—but also giving Americans a confidence in their own native inventiveness. The world paid Edison an homage it will never pay to Nancy Pelosi.
Edison left some wise words for America , too. They can inspire us to climb out of the hole that many in government are digging for us:
"Be courageous! Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation....Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith and go forward"
I think halogens are a FIRE HAZARD, because of the HEAT they generate.
They are probably banned as well, anyway.
I think halogens are a FIRE HAZARD, because of the HEAT they generate.
“With more expensive CFLs, you come out ahead on energy costs and and not having to change them on a frequent basis.”
You are welcome to buy them if you wish, just not impose your judgment on the rest of us. And remember to also invest in a hazmat suit so you can safely dispose of your mercury-containing bulbs.
For rooms in which one does not stay long and for which uses are infrequent (such as closets), CFLs absolutely suck because of the warm-up time. For spot lighting from a distance, where a reflector bulb is the correct application, CFLs suck because they do not have directional throw. LEDs on low-voltage DC are the way to go for lighting circuits, but it will be a few more years before they are cost effective. In any case, one should keep some incandescent bulbs on hand for emergencies, as they run on anything.
I’ve got a large sack of burned out CFLs awaiting the next very sporadically scheduled community household-hazmat collection. The sack dates back only about 4 years. While newer CFLs seem to be of better quality (and I was an early tester of the technology) they still seem to burn out at a rate that makes me question if they’re worth the electricity they supposedly have saved. Sometimes, however, the odd 20 year old CFL, first used when I lived elsewhere, is still faithfully lighting up.
A halogen lamp dissipates a little less actual heat than its incandescent cousin. Its chief fire danger is the surface temperature of a bare halogen capsule, which far exceeds that of an incandescent lamp. Halogens with an enclosed capsule and normal sized outer bulb mitigate this problem — they don’t get any “hotter” than the same wattage incandescent they replaced.
I have a closet full of incandescents, it’s going to be a hell of a long time before I start using those silly looking hazmat bulbs, if I run out of incandescents, I’ll use candles!
>>>But are they still hot....my experience with their predecessors is that they get hotter’n a b!tch.....<<<
Which is great as far as I’m concerned. I have an above-ground root cellar up here in Alaska. I dig a root can’t dig a cellar, since I hit permafrost about four feet down. So I built a shed with an open floor, covered it with 49 pickup loads of dirt, insulated the walls, and viola! A root cellar. Since I’m in Alaska I have to heat it in the winter.
I use a single 40 watt incandenscent light bulb. All that excess heat is just enough to keep the temperature above freezing. Right now it is -29.9 degrees outside. Inside the root cellar it is +36 degrees, just a wee bit too warm, but the potatoes, cabbage, turnips, carrots, and so forth are doing well.
That means I have an 8-by-8 foot walk-in fridge containing not only all my garden veggies but also butter, eggs, yogurt, and other refrigerated perishables from Fairbanks, which usually cost a lot of money at the local store. The idea has worked so well a lot of folks out here are looking at it as a way to lower food costs in a place where a dozen eggs runs about six bucks and milk costs about 10 dollars a gallon.
My monthly cost to run the light in the cellar is about three bucks. Electricity costs 59 cents a kilowatt hour. In some villages, electricity is up to 99 cents a kilowatt hour. Running a fridge up here costs us as much as a monthly electric bill in the Lower 48.
My point is that my beneficient federal overlords want to take away the simpliest and most accessible technology to do this. Yes, I can get heaters and thermostats and all sorts of other crap - but the easiest solution is an old lamp and a light bulb, something that even the poorest person out here can get.
Except for the light bulb, apparently.
Where is the light bulb clause in the Constitution, anyhow? I’d call them a bunch of lumbering, unthinking idiots whose ideas always have unforseen consequences, but I don’t want to add to the vitriol. LOL
Haw!...
The shaped end is, I think, designed to make it easier to fit the lamp where a normal incandescent used to go.
If you need the heat, you could compensate for that by using a much bigger CFL, or a group of them. The actual dissipated wattage is stated on the side of the base. It’ll be dazzling with light though, don’t know if that will affect the root veggies.
"light bulb clause in the Constitution?
..if it's not rejoinable to the Constitution ignore it, it's not enforceable to those who reserve their rights(just as any Corp. does, check it out).
If more did this (reserve their Constitutional rights), they would stop trying to Sovietize America.
I use an old fashioned 300 watt incandescent that looks like the on that appears over you head when you get a good idea.
In the winter it helps to add a few degrees to the room I'm in and I can see real good where everything's at.
Let’s send all burnt-out CFLs to Congress, and see how they deal with disposal.
Can LEDs be made for household lighting?
Yes, but it is expensive at the moment.
Without Incadickadoo bulbs millions of dogs will freeze!
It is the heater of choice for dog houses across the globe.
Why should he have to spend more?
The entire CFL push is ridiculous.
This is not about saving the planet.
This should be about freedom of choice.
“I think halogens are a FIRE HAZARD, because of the HEAT they generate.”
Halogens necessarily run hot. Because they run hot, quartz instead of ordinary glass is used for for the inner bulb, which tolerates the heat without softening.
It so happens that quartz is transparent to ultraviolet wavelengths. Because of the high operating temperature halogens generate significant amounts of UV that can present a skin cancer hazard. Therefore they should never be used with a broken outer envelope, or in the absence of the protective glass shield on some lamp types (such as desk lamps), for both fire and UV safety reasons.
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