原创 Edison lighting improves electronic projects

Until now, my mind was set on using vacuum tubes augmented with tri-colored LEDs to enhance the look and feel of my hobby projects. However, I may have to take a look at those reproductions of vintage-style light bulbs known as Edison Bulbs. You can see all sorts of these little beauties by performing a search for "Edison Bulbs" on eBay, Google, and YouTube.

The reason I'm waffling on about this here is that I just heard from my old chum Alan Winstanley in the UK. One interesting item of news he had to impart was the fact that the hard-copy version of his Basic Soldering Guide Handbook has just gone on sale for $14.99 at Createspace. Another interesting nugget of knowledge Alan conveyed is that he's been photographing Edison Bulbs. He doesn't get out much.

As Alan says: "For fun, I photographed a whole bunch of vintage light bulbs (or, rather, modern facsimiles thereof) as I was fascinated by the reflections the incandescent filaments made around the glass envelope."

 

"I also aimed the macro lens at the filament supports, where I saw a new world of engineering open up."

 

"I soldered up a triac dimmer to tone the filaments down to a warm orange glow -- I had various bulbs to play with, including coiled, spirals, squirrel-caged and more besides."

 

"All these light bulbs are a modern pastiche (today's word) on vintage lighting. They were pretty hard to shoot using a macro lens. The depth of field is a few mm and the tiniest vibration (e.g., from passing traffic or me coughing) caused the glowing filaments -- suspended on their support wires -- to 'ring' or go out of focus. Most of all, I enjoyed exploring the reflections within the envelope."

Well, I have to say that I am very impressed, both by Alan's photographic skills and by the Steampunk-esqueness (sometimes it's hard to know where to stop with a word like this) of these little scamps. As I mentioned earlier, I may have to consider using these little beauties to enhance the look and feel of my hobby projects. Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in using Alan's images for any reason, they are available for purchase from BigStockPhoto.com.