I Sing the Bulb Electric
Jun. 6th, 2004 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infrogmationI've been a ranty froggy lately, so now I'll spew some opinionated random thoughts on a totally inconsequential and apolitical topic: decorative home light fixtures.
Inspired by this post by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ernunnos:
"What's the thing that everyone oohs and aahs over in terms of housewares that strikes you as perverse at best?"
Chandeliers with little electric bulbs atop tubes that are supposed to look like candles.
I know that many people find them gorgeous and classy, but they've never particularly appealed to me. I figure, if you're going to have a candle chandelier, have candles; if you're going electric, don't try to make it look like something else.
If I understand the history of this development, actually they are electric lights in tubes that were developed for gasoliers that were supposed to look like candles, adding another layer of historical faux.
There were already many successful designs for making attractive electric light fixtures that weren't pseudo-candles by the late 19th century. It's not a an unsolvable problem to make something beautiful without the phony candles.
Well, I have one of these things in my music room (formerly the house's dining room); it was one of the nicer fixtures in place when I bought the house, though not original. (Originally the end of the 19th century houses in this neighborhood had combination gas-electric fixtures; my place still has two original converted to electric only, and I've installed a matching third one.) It's a brass one of a type mass produced from the 1910s through the early 1960s that many visitors compliment, but I've often thought of getting rid of it. I've thought of replacing it with a ceiling fan light fixture like in other rooms, but I havn't found one I like enough with the proper vintage look that will give off light to rival the chandelier.
Which brings up the next question:
"Is there something they haven't invented yet that you wish they would from the same category?"
A good ceiling fan/chandelier combination. Not just a ceiling fan with a light fixture, but with a real nice decorative multi-bulb fixture. That doesn't look like make-believe candles.
And finally, a song, via a tape in the Tulane Jazz Archive (tune: Turkey in the Straw):
I went to the city
To see all the sights
My fav'rite was
The e-lectric lights.
The man who made them
Knew what it was about:
He put 'em all in bottles so you couldn't blow 'em out.
Inspired by this post by
ernunnos:"What's the thing that everyone oohs and aahs over in terms of housewares that strikes you as perverse at best?"
Chandeliers with little electric bulbs atop tubes that are supposed to look like candles.
I know that many people find them gorgeous and classy, but they've never particularly appealed to me. I figure, if you're going to have a candle chandelier, have candles; if you're going electric, don't try to make it look like something else.
If I understand the history of this development, actually they are electric lights in tubes that were developed for gasoliers that were supposed to look like candles, adding another layer of historical faux.
There were already many successful designs for making attractive electric light fixtures that weren't pseudo-candles by the late 19th century. It's not a an unsolvable problem to make something beautiful without the phony candles.
Well, I have one of these things in my music room (formerly the house's dining room); it was one of the nicer fixtures in place when I bought the house, though not original. (Originally the end of the 19th century houses in this neighborhood had combination gas-electric fixtures; my place still has two original converted to electric only, and I've installed a matching third one.) It's a brass one of a type mass produced from the 1910s through the early 1960s that many visitors compliment, but I've often thought of getting rid of it. I've thought of replacing it with a ceiling fan light fixture like in other rooms, but I havn't found one I like enough with the proper vintage look that will give off light to rival the chandelier.
Which brings up the next question:
"Is there something they haven't invented yet that you wish they would from the same category?"
A good ceiling fan/chandelier combination. Not just a ceiling fan with a light fixture, but with a real nice decorative multi-bulb fixture. That doesn't look like make-believe candles.
And finally, a song, via a tape in the Tulane Jazz Archive (tune: Turkey in the Straw):
I went to the city
To see all the sights
My fav'rite was
The e-lectric lights.
The man who made them
Knew what it was about:
He put 'em all in bottles so you couldn't blow 'em out.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-06 08:40 am (UTC)Hmmm...the most perverse houseware? Probably one of those "as seen on TV" gadgets.
Space-Age Candles!
Date: 2004-06-06 10:16 am (UTC)Yes, this is in the same room with the incredible silk Jacquard-weave wallpaper that scared Darla nearly to death.
Re: Space-Age Candles!
Date: 2004-06-06 05:15 pm (UTC)I have been fascinated with Sputnik since I saw it last year at the Cosmosphere. The actual real Sputnik, not just a tennis ball with RCA antennae glued to it like at the Eisenhower museum. Your chandelier is teh rock.
Also plus, I agree with Der Frogermeister about the fakety fake flame candle lights. My grandmother had a lovely chandelier in her old home that was designed for candles. It bypassed gas altogether and by the 1940s was wired for electricity, with big round old timey bulbs that actually looked very nice in the candleholders. Except you couldn't use a high wattage, so the chandelier didn't give off much light, what with four .000001 watt bulbs.
Mom's house currently has a 1920s-era chandelier built for light bulbs, and it's nice as well. However, the 1890s chandelier in the old house we used to rent was teh suck - it was designed for candles, then was made electric by putting some nasty bakelite tubes in a vague candle shape onto the candle holders, and shoving a light socket into the top of the tubes.
Aptly,
Date: 2004-06-07 06:47 pm (UTC)