Decorative Lighting Research Articles

Decorative Lighting—A Designer's Approach

This paper takes for granted that the technicalities of lighting are well known and therefore deals broadly with the aesthetic aspect. From the assumption that lighting is an integral part of interior-decoration, it examines the approach of a designer when dealing with a known interior, and compares this with the problem of designing fittings for a catalogue. It discusses the inveterate question of what is good design, and a definition is suggested.In reviewing the trend of design, it refers to colour, form, light and shade, contrast and novelty, and considers the factors which influence changes in fashion, taste and technique. It includes an appraisal of some installations in relation to contemporary thought, and concludes with a plea for more good design and “lighting artists” in the industry.

The Decorative Approach to Commercial Lighting

Fluorescent light sources, by their characteristics, have completely upset the classical lighting techniques previously in use and have set new problems in the decorative quality of commercial lighting installations. No decorative lighting for commercial purposes and no luminous sign can be truly satisfactory unless the scheme that is to be carried out by the lighting engineer has in the first place been conceived by an artist pursuing an aesthetic conception regardless of the ultimate purpose of the installation. The author recommends that fluorescent light sources used in such installations should have a predominantly red spectral emission. Incandescent sources can be usefully combined with fluorescent sources. The completed lighting scheme should include one or more spots of colour, either light sources or lighted surfaces, which serve as tonal points of reference by which the colour value of the general lighting can be located.

Decorative Lighting

Decorative lighting is not so much a practice in itself as an essential component of any lighting scheme. The word “decorative” is misleading in that it implies ornament, whereas, in point of fact, the decorative component of lighting may be only a matter of simplification; indeed, the modern tendency appears to be towards the avoidance of lighting “decoration” and the substitution of lighting harmony.The paper contends that, approached in this way, decorative lighting can be analysed in a manner impossible if it were considered to be purely an artistic function. With the aid of such analysis, this aspect of illuminating engineering can be brought within the scope of a great number of lighting engineers who might otherwise feel unqualified to tackle those lighting problems in which decoration is of great importance.The approach to the decorative component must take the form of a search for harmony, firstly in relation to the prevailing human emotion of those for whom the lighting is designed and secondly in relation to the architectural characteristics of the space under treatment.The paper terminates with a detailed description of a particular installation, showing how the above reasoning was applied.

Decorative Lighting for the Coronation

SINCE the last coronation, twenty-six years ago, great improvements have taken place in the art of decorative lighting. In 1911, metal filament and arc lamps were used. Since then the invention of gas-filled lamps and the development of electric-discharge lamps have greatly cheapened the cost and improved the flexibility of the illumination. The illuminations will show many new aspects of London, and practically all the principal provincial cities will have very effective displays. In London alone there will be nearly two hundred floodlighting installations, and in the provinces, statistics obtained from six hundred local authorities show that the mean additional load per town will be approximately 60 kilowatts. This does not take into account the numerous smaller schemes of strip-lighting and illuminated devices with which shops and business premises will be decorated. For the first time, the fountains in Trafalgar Square are being illuminated by means of eight submersible reflectors taking 500-watt gas-filled lamps. In addition to all four sides of ‘Big Ben’, the terrace of the Houses of Parliament is being floodlighted for the first time. Two novelties are, 30-ft. high electric ‘bonfires' with flame effects on the roof of the Shell Mex House, and colour changing equipment for illuminating 30-ft. high jets of water from fire floats stationed outside the new London Fire Brigade headquarters. A very large sodium flood-lighting installation used at Dunfermline Abbey and Edinburgh Castle give an outstanding and beautiful display of decorative lighting.

Decorative Lighting and Color

Decorative Lighting and Color

Tungsten lamps

The perfection of the tungsten incandescent lamp as a highly efficient means of converting electrical energy into light has made it a subject of great commercial interest. The tungsten lamp has reached in a comparatively short time a most enviable position in the field of artificial illuminants. It has been developed for multiple use on commercial lighting circuits up to 260 volts, for series street lighting, for low voltage decorative, display and train lighting, and for many other purposes. Its commercial success in all these various applications bears witness to its merit as a convenient and efficient source of illumination and its production and characteristics are consequently worthy of consideration from an engineering standpoint.