wakibaki
Newly Enlightened
Now, I know there is no such thing as a perfect torch.
The other night I dreamed I was a bunch of torches. About half a dozen, small, silvery ones. After a while, with considerable relief, I realised I was only one torch. I was just on the point of switching on when I woke up. Isn't it always the way…
I'm not sure this website is really a 'good thing.' This morning I heard on breakfast TV about websites where anorexics get together to exchange notes on how to starve yourself and hide it from your parents etc., I mean if you had asked me only a couple of weeks ago I would have said "Recovering". Then I found this place. If global TV turns the glare of its spotlight (!) on us we may have more illumination than we need.
Anyway when I was building lamps about 15 years ago there was very little Internet and LEDs were only good as indicators and displays. There were a few specialist items available but for the large part these were hard to obtain and manufactured in small quantities.
Mostly what I was interested in was gun lights for rabbiting. Some people use headlamps for this but I like a scope-mounted lamp on a silenced pneumatic airgun. In this case you're not interested in the coma, just the spot. How much penetration can you get?
Of course you shouldn't be taking a shot over 50 yards really, even a higher power gun doesn't guarantee a clean kill, and anyway we're staying subsonic here for stealth.
At the time there just wasn't much to compete with an auto halogen bulb, well driven, and even now there still isn't, certainly in economic terms.
I have a certain interest in HIDs since these are employed as horticultural grow lights, and Lumens/watt is of concern since electric power is not free. A couple of years ago NASA announced some orbital experiments growing plants under LEDs and this sparked a lot of interest in some quarters since there is a mistaken public impression that LEDs are (or were) tremendously efficient and cool-running.
A few calculations were sufficient to show that both in economic and thermal engineering terms LEDs in general availability did not at that time approach the standard for horticulture set by HIDs, but also showed that LEDs were catching up fast.
So I always keep my eye on technological developments and late last year I became aware of the introduction of the new Cree LED. The figures for the Luxeons just weren't quite enough to float my boat, but when I saw TWICE AS MUCH LIGHT for the same energy, I knew that the dam had broken.
Anyway all this is about torches isn't it? If we're going to take an interest in torches it might be useful to have a point to aim at, so that we know when we're getting close to perfection. So what are the qualities that go to make a perfect torch?
Obviously I've got some ideas of my own here, if you're not careful I may inflict them on you. Anyway I'll share a few thoughts about size with you…
A torch has to be big enough to hold and operate comfortably, and small and light enough to be readily portable. If it gets hot this can be a problem and can be related to size. This covers a lot of ground, but if you could make a torch with adequate brightness and duration that ran cool and was too small to hold comfortably, then you could always make it bigger.
w
The other night I dreamed I was a bunch of torches. About half a dozen, small, silvery ones. After a while, with considerable relief, I realised I was only one torch. I was just on the point of switching on when I woke up. Isn't it always the way…
I'm not sure this website is really a 'good thing.' This morning I heard on breakfast TV about websites where anorexics get together to exchange notes on how to starve yourself and hide it from your parents etc., I mean if you had asked me only a couple of weeks ago I would have said "Recovering". Then I found this place. If global TV turns the glare of its spotlight (!) on us we may have more illumination than we need.
Anyway when I was building lamps about 15 years ago there was very little Internet and LEDs were only good as indicators and displays. There were a few specialist items available but for the large part these were hard to obtain and manufactured in small quantities.
Mostly what I was interested in was gun lights for rabbiting. Some people use headlamps for this but I like a scope-mounted lamp on a silenced pneumatic airgun. In this case you're not interested in the coma, just the spot. How much penetration can you get?
Of course you shouldn't be taking a shot over 50 yards really, even a higher power gun doesn't guarantee a clean kill, and anyway we're staying subsonic here for stealth.
At the time there just wasn't much to compete with an auto halogen bulb, well driven, and even now there still isn't, certainly in economic terms.
I have a certain interest in HIDs since these are employed as horticultural grow lights, and Lumens/watt is of concern since electric power is not free. A couple of years ago NASA announced some orbital experiments growing plants under LEDs and this sparked a lot of interest in some quarters since there is a mistaken public impression that LEDs are (or were) tremendously efficient and cool-running.
A few calculations were sufficient to show that both in economic and thermal engineering terms LEDs in general availability did not at that time approach the standard for horticulture set by HIDs, but also showed that LEDs were catching up fast.
So I always keep my eye on technological developments and late last year I became aware of the introduction of the new Cree LED. The figures for the Luxeons just weren't quite enough to float my boat, but when I saw TWICE AS MUCH LIGHT for the same energy, I knew that the dam had broken.
Anyway all this is about torches isn't it? If we're going to take an interest in torches it might be useful to have a point to aim at, so that we know when we're getting close to perfection. So what are the qualities that go to make a perfect torch?
Obviously I've got some ideas of my own here, if you're not careful I may inflict them on you. Anyway I'll share a few thoughts about size with you…
A torch has to be big enough to hold and operate comfortably, and small and light enough to be readily portable. If it gets hot this can be a problem and can be related to size. This covers a lot of ground, but if you could make a torch with adequate brightness and duration that ran cool and was too small to hold comfortably, then you could always make it bigger.
w
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