Artificial Light: Its Influence upon CivilizationLuckiesh, Matthew
History
Artificial Light: Its Influence upon Civilization
Luckiesh, Matthew
Electric lighting; Lighting -- History
The daylight which enters buildings is often considerably altered in
color by reflection from other buildings and from vegetation, and after
it enters a room it is sometimes modified by reflection from colored
surroundings. It may be commonly noted that the light reflected from
green grass through a window to the upper part of a room is very much
tinted with green and the light reflected from a yellow brick building
is tinted yellow. Besides these alterations, sunlight varies in color
from the yellow or red of dawn through white at noon to orange or red at
sunset. Throughout the day the amount of light from the sky does not
change nearly as much as the amount of sunlight, so there is a
continual variation in the proportion of direct sunlight and skylight
reaching the earth. This is further varied by the changing position of
the sun. For example, at a north window in which the direct sunlight may
not enter throughout the day, the amount of sunlight which enters by
reflection from adjacent buildings and other objects may vary greatly.
Thus it is seen that daylight not only varies in quantity but also in
quality, and an artificial daylight, which is based upon an extensive
analysis, has the advantage of being constant in quantity and quality as
well as correct in quality. Modern artificial-daylight units which have
been scientifically developed not only make mankind independent of
daylight in the discrimination of colors but they are superior to
daylight.
Although there are many expert colorists who require an accurate
artificial daylight, there are vast fields of lighting where a less
accurate daylight quality is necessary. The average eyes are not
sufficiently skilled for the finest discrimination of colors and
therefore the Mazda "daylight" lamp supplies the less exacting
requirements of color matching. It is a compromise between quality and
efficiency of light and serves the purpose so well that millions of
these lamps have found applications in stores, offices, and industries.
In order to make an accurate artificial north skylight for color-work by
means of colored glass, from 75 to 85 per cent. of the light from a
tungsten lamp must be filtered out. This absorption in a broad sense
increases the efficiency of the light, for the fraction that remains is
now satisfactory, whereas the original light is virtually useless for
accurate color-discrimination. About one third of the original light is
absorbed by the bulb of the tungsten "daylight" lamp, with a resultant
light which is an approximation to average daylight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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