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Good Night, Light Bulb

By Peter Lloyd

The universal symbol for "idea" is losing its luster. Principally because it's so inefficient. Most of the electricity we pump into the most common type of electric light bulb becomes heat. Very little becomes light.

TAGThat's great if you're powering an Easy-Bake Oven. But if it's more light and less heat you want, switch on a compact fluorescent lamp or a light-emitting diode (LED) lamp. You'll get more of what you switched for. All of these newer lamps yield more visible light and less heat for the same amount of electrical energy input.

A typical, 60-watt tungsten-filament, incandescent bulb converts about 2% of the power it's given into light. The other 98% is lost as heat. Fluorescents generate much more light and much less heat for the amps they receive.

We've needed to save energy for a long time. It's never been free, it's been getting more difficult to secure and deliver, and producing it has always brought bad side effects.

TAGThomas Edison was awarded U.S. Patent 0,223,898 for "an improved electric lamp" 130 years ago. We've been producing relatively similar versions of Edison's inefficient invention ever since. It's clear that the necessity for more efficient light has failed to drive the demand for its adoption. Only lately, urged by the need to save the planet have we gotten serious about converting to more efficient sources of light. Only after governments around the world have begun to phase out or ban incandescent bulbs.

Obviously, then, necessity is not the mother of invention? Who is the real mother then? Regulation?

Certainly regulation spurs invention and innovation, because in our profit-driven world, manufacturers don't get behind what's better for us until they're confident they will profit. They'd be irresponsible to put the power of their processes and their shareholders' resources behind products doomed to failure.

So it might be fairer and more accurate to say profit is the sugar daddy of invention.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.
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