The Anglepoise lamp is a balanced-arm lamp designed in 1932 by British designer George Carwardine.
The Anglepoise lamp is a balanced-arm lamp designed in 1932 by British designer George Carwardine.
George Carwardine (1887–1947) was a car designer and a freelance design consultant specialising in vehicle suspension systems. While developing new concepts for vehicle suspensions, he created a mechanism which he recognised had applications in other fields. He particularly saw its benefits for a task lamp. Despite many claims to the contrary, his concept had nothing whatsoever to do with mimicking the actions of the human arm.[ citation needed ] The joints and spring tension allow the lamp to be moved into a wide range of positions which it will maintain without being clamped.
Carwardine applied to be a patent, number 404,615, [1] for a design using the mechanism on 4 July 1932, and manufactured the lamp himself in the workshops of his own company, Cardine Accessories, in Bath. He soon found the interest and demand so great that he needed a major expansion or partner and, on 22 February 1934, entered into a licensing agreement with Herbert Terry and Sons in Redditch. [2] [3] Terry's manufactured and marketed the lamp, while Carwardine continued to develop the concept, producing a number of other versions and applications (for example, for supporting microphones). The original four-spring design was made for working environments, such as workshops and doctors' and dentists' surgeries, but he also designed a three-spring version for use in the home, patented on 10 February 1934. (patent number 433,617) [4] ).
The 1227 Anglepoise was released in 1935. It was primarily manufactured for the home and proved to be extremely popular.[ citation needed ] The 1227 was hugely promoted by the Terry Spring Company and when England declared war on Germany on September 3 1939 the company ran an advert on the same day describing it as the "ideal blackout lamp". [5]
Although the Second World War had a detrimental effect on standard Anglepoise production, the Terry Spring Company was producing Anglepoise lamps for the navigator's station in bombers. According to the Anglepoise website, these were so well produced that when a crashed Vickers Wellington bomber was salvaged from Loch Ness in Scotland in 1985, the lamp still worked after being given a new battery – despite being submerged for around four decades. [6]
A key feature of the Anglepoise design and patent is the placement of all springs (either three or four) near the base. The design was extensively copied by other companies, usually in simplified form, and is still in use. Some derivatives use a heavy balance weight instead of the springs. The most common version replaces the arm linkages with two independent parallelogram linkages, with a pair of light tension springs on each half of the arm.
The arm has been employed in other devices where it is necessary to hold an object stationary at a convenient point in space, notably the copy holder for typists and in some applications, the computer display screen.
The lamps have been made from a variety of materials over the years, evolving from the early full steel prototypes into later models made from brass and aluminium. [7]
Although the lamp is still marketed as an iconic British design, production for all lamps, except the 1227 Giant model, has been moved to China. [8]
In 1948 the Board of Governors of the BBC asked the head of the Variety Department, Michael Standing, to devise a guiding set of moral standards and protocols for the production of all BBC radio and television programmes. Standing produced what became known within the BBC as the "Green Book", whose purpose was to eradicate smut, innuendo and vulgarity from all BBC programmes. After producing the book Standing took to implementing his guidance with eccentric zeal. In June 1949 he issued a memo to all staff in which he forbade BBC employees to illuminate any room with an Anglepoise lamp unless the main ceiling or wall light was also illuminated: Standing held a firm belief that a man working at a desk in a confined space with only the light from a low-wattage lamp would nurture furtive ideas and produce degenerate programme material. Director General Sir William Haley later rescinded the Anglepoise lamp edict as extreme and unnecessary. [9]
An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a filament that is heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb that is either evacuated or filled with inert gas to protect the filament from oxidation. Electric current is supplied to the filament by terminals or wires embedded in the glass. A bulb socket provides mechanical support and electrical connections.
A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecules, such as molecular machines. Machines can be driven by animals and people, by natural forces such as wind and water, and by chemical, thermal, or electrical power, and include a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that monitor performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems.
An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc.
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Luxo Jr. is a 1986 American animated short film produced and released by Pixar. Written and directed by John Lasseter, the two-minute short film revolves around one larger and one smaller desk lamp. The larger lamp, named Luxo Sr., looks on while the smaller, "younger" Luxo Jr. plays exuberantly with a ball to the extent that it accidentally deflates. Luxo Jr. was Pixar's first animation after Ed Catmull and John Lasseter left the Lucasfilm Computer Division. The film is the source of Luxo Jr., the mascot of Pixar.
A vibrato system on a guitar is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. They add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the strings, typically at the bridge or tailpiece of an electric guitar using a controlling lever, which is alternately referred to as a whammy bar, vibrato bar, or tremolo arm. The lever enables the player to quickly and temporarily vary the tension and sometimes length of the strings, changing the pitch to create a vibrato, portamento, or pitch bend effect. Instruments without a vibrato have other bridge and tailpiece systems.
The Ferguson TE20 is an agricultural tractor designed by Harry Ferguson. By far his most successful design, it was manufactured from 1946 until 1956, and was commonly known as the Little Grey Fergie. It marked a major advance in tractor design, distinguished by light weight, small size, manoeuvrability and versatility. The TE20 popularised Harry Ferguson's invention of the hydraulic three-point hitch system around the world, and the system quickly became an international standard for tractors of all makes and sizes that has remained to this day. The tractor played a large part in introducing widespread mechanised agriculture. In many parts of the world the TE20 was the first tractor to be affordable to the average farmer and was small and light enough to replace the draft horse and manual labour. Many TE20s remain in regular use in farming and other work and the model is also a popular collector's item for enthusiasts today.
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Luxo Jr. is a semi-anthropomorphic toy desk lamp character used as the primary mascot of Pixar Animation Studios. He is the protagonist of the short film of the same name and appears on the production logo of every Pixar film, hopping into view and jumping on the capital letter "I" in "PIXAR" to flatten it. John Lasseter created the character, modeling it after his own Luxo brand lamp. In 2009, the manufacturer of Luxo lamps sued Disney, the parent company of Pixar, for selling Luxo Jr.-branded merchandise.
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