Turn it off
May 18, 2011 (Wednesday)
I was nine years old when I got a 16MM movie projector for Christmas (less than $10). I was given several short films with it: Donald Duck, Charles Starrett, and Charlie Chaplin — none in color (the year was 1940). It was powered by ordinary electricity, and the projection light was a plain old incandescent light bulb, with a concave mirror behind it to make it brighter. The light bulb and its metal housing got very hot, and I soon learned the hard way to keep “hands off” because it could seriously burn me. And it did. I had burn scars to prove it.
The light bulb that we have been using for many years was developed after much trial and error by Thomas Edison and his group of developers. There is a movie (Spencer Tracy is Edison) that shows that process that finally culminated in introducing a vacuum in order to keep the metal element that glowed from burning up.
The EZBake ovens are based on the idea that a light bulb produces heat. And that’s why new regulations are coming into being to replace the incandescent bulb with other devices. What we want from a light bulb is light–not heat. Heat from a bulb represents wasted energy.
Countries around the world are outlawing the incandescent bulb, and are encouraging the invention of lighting produced in a different way. Consequently, a light bulb utilizing integrated circuit chips and light-emitting diodes will someday take the place of the plain old light bulb. If you want one today, it will cost at least $40.
The $40 light bulb can light your garage where you park your car with a full tank of gasoline that cost $80. On the way home, don’t forget to stop by the pharmacy and pick up some $30 pills (that’s $30 each, y’all). It’s an extended list: people can’t afford to pay their electric bill, many cannot afford the groceries anymore, a lot of folks just don’t go to the dentist or doctor because the costs are beyond them. And on it goes.
So, here’s to the $40 light bulb. Will the last person to exit this too-expensive world please turn out the light?