Blog posts
Sedna re-creates Picasso lighting experiment using LEDs
Sedna, the Cardiff LED lighting specialist, has recreated Picasso’s light experiment using an LED torch to mark the 43rd anniversary of the artist’s death. Mike Collins who was responsible for re-creating Picasso’s experiment, says: “Sedna have proved themselves to be innovative thinkers -using their resources to make a brighter world.” Collins explains his approach on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WuvGae6QKpoIn 1949 Pablo Picasso was introduced to Life Magazine’s photographer, Gjon Mili. Mili, who was already working on creating lighting projects, showed Picasso some of his photographs of ice skaters with tiny lights attached to their skates jumping in the dark.According to a report...
Zeolites could make LEDs cheaper and more efficient
Researchers from KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Strasbourg, and CNRS have discovered a new phosphor that could make next-generation fluorescent and LED lighting even cheaper and more efficient. The team used highly luminescent clusters of silver atoms and the porous framework of minerals known as zeolites.Silver clusters consist of just a few silver atoms and have remarkable optical properties. However, current applications are limited, because the clusters tend to aggregate into larger particles, thus losing the interesting optical properties. Professor Hofkens and his team from the Molecular Imaging and Photonics Unit have now found a way to keep the...
Sir Kenneth Corfield, businessman - obituary
Businessman who developed the Periflex camera and advocated technological advances in industry Sir Kenneth Corfield, who has died aged 91, was a pioneer of British camera design before becoming a leading industrialist as chairman of Standard Telephones & Cables.The name of Corfield is particularly associated by photography buffs with the 35mm Periflex camera developed in 1953 by Kenneth with the assistance of his brother John. Designed to improve on market-leading Leica models from Germany, the Periflex featured a small periscope to aid focusing, as well as a conventional viewfinder. A large order from the Maharajah of Mysore boosted early sales,...
Free money buys LED streetlights for energy savings in Wales
The Welsh county of Denbighshire has landed an interest-free loan from the UK government to upgrade 1,500 of its nearly 12,000 streetlights to LED.The new lights will will cut about £42,000 annually from Denbighshire's streetlighting electricity bill, which last year was £385,000 for all 11,790 lights, county council streetlighting engineer Craig Wilson told Lux (other published reports have stated that the bill was £345,000).Salix lent £280,760 to cover the cost of the luminaires, which the county must pay back from energy savings within eight years, Wilson noted. Denbighshire itself will cover the installation costs.At zero per cent financing and with significant energy reduction,...
Return of incandescent light bulbs as Massachusetts Institute of Technology makes them more efficient than LEDs
Telegraph Science By Sarah Knapton, science editor An incandescent light bulb Ever since the EU restricted sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs, homeowners have complained about the shortcomings of their energy-efficient replacements.The clinical white beam of LEDs and frustrating time-delay of ‘green’ lighting has left many hankering after the instant, bright warm glow of traditional filament bulbs.But now scientists in the US believe they have come up with a solution which could see a reprieve for incandescent bulbs. "The lighting potential of this technology is exciting." Prof Gang Chen, MIT Researchers at MIT have shown that by surrounding the filament with a special crystal...