"The restaurant also had a television set, which sat in a corner with a “television light” on top—a prism of soft colors which supposedly kept people from ruining their eyes on TV waves."
The story is set in the summer of 1954. I am old enough to remember television sets of that era, and don't remember any having special lights on top of the cabinet, but I trust the accuracy of her memory and interpretation.
A Google search yielded nothing because of all the other "television" clutter in links and photos, so I'm turning to the readership here for possible insight.
Addendum: Reader Rocky says his family's television was a Sylvania Halolight; I found a photo of one at the Museum of the Moving Image:
Reader Smurfswacker also had one in his family:
Yes, indeedy, there were special TV lights. My aunt and uncle had one atop their set. That was circa 1959, and I believe the practice was old-fashioned by then. Theirs was a small (under a foot tall), dim lamp with a cylindrical shade that rotated, probably powered by heated air rising from the lamp. There was a mountain scene printed on the shade and as the cylinder rotated it made a waterfall appear to flow.
And an anonymous reader found this collection of images of "TV lamps." Looks like prime material for embedding in the next linkdump. :-)
I don't know about on top but we had a Sylvania with a fluorescent surround all the way around the picture tube, would have been around '62 - '63 ish.
ReplyDeleteLove that google, it was called a "Sylvania Halolight"
Yes, indeedy, there were special TV lights. My aunt and uncle had one atop their set. That was circa 1959, and I believe the practice was old-fashioned by then. Theirs was a small (under a foot tall), dim lamp with a cylindrical shade that rotated, probably powered by heated air rising from the lamp. There was a mountain scene printed on the shade and as the cylinder rotated it made a waterfall appear to flow.
ReplyDeleteI've no specialized knowledge about these things, but dredging my ancient memory I seem to recall that early TV owners watched in darkened rooms. I'm not sure why. The television lamps were to provide a bit of ambient light so you could walk to the fridge during commercials without running into the furniture. I remember hearing the bit about protecting your vision but I don't know the basis for that. In an early 50s comic book I found an ad for a TV light in which the motion effect was a burning forest fire. Now there's a soothing image.
I had never heard of them before but I just found this article https://www.collectorsweekly.com/lamps/tv
ReplyDeleteYes, there were lights, lamps actually, that were made to sit on top of the console TV. They were low wattage and glowed more than lit. Many viewers watched in the dark, with only the glow of the lamp and the screen providing illumination.
ReplyDeleteI can find no reference to such a thing either. (And I'm quite proud of my google skills)
ReplyDeleteThe first TV show I saw was Marciano winning the title in '52, the room had to be dark because the picture was small and not all that bright. Any lamp on in the room would reflect off the screen. We got a set in '54 and I don't think the lights had caught on yet. With no internet to spread urban legends we had to depend on traveling salesmen and sharp businessmen wanting to make a buck to spread them.
ReplyDeleteThere is an antique shop in Northfield Minnesota that has an awesome collection of these lamps. http://www.tvlamps.net/christensen-collection.html
ReplyDeleteWow! Northfield is where my family settled when they arrived in the U.S. They founded and went to St. Olaf -
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/search/label/St.%20Olaf
"Don't sit too close to the teevee. You'll ruin your eyes. And leave a light on in the room. Never watch teevee in the dark."
ReplyDeleteThe first few years of color, teevees used very high voltage in the CRT, the wrong materials for that, and had poor shielding. It turns out that they generated and scattered actual x-rays. So the superstition about sitting too close paid off. Three times as far away equals one-ninth the x-rays.
I often work at the computer and watch movies and read now by only the light of the monitor. I prefer it. I'm pretty sure that all the damage in my eyes comes from 63 years of actinic sunlight. And all the warnings lately, and ads for protective products, against blue light are just so much crap. When it's time to go to sleep I fall asleep like being hit in the head with a two-by-four. Zero UV comes from phones and monitors and normal lightbulbs.
Plus, Q-tips are for cleaning the inside of your ears and I like to. Why else buy them? Just be careful.
The X-rays were no joke. My Grandfather was one of the first TV repairmen and when color came out he would sit at his bench working on one set, with the previously repaired set "burning in" (making sure the repair stayed repaired) about two feet away and aimed at him.
DeleteAbout 1964 (before anyone payed attention to the problem) He had to have a double mastectomy, very uncommon in men. Only later (about '68) did we realize the probable cause.
Interesting! A lot of companies sell bias lights that plug into the USB port on your TV and act as a means to reduce eye strain by cutting the contrast from the sharp black edge of the TV. Less sold as a means to move about the house without bumping things and more as a way to "get the most out of your tv" by making the blacks pop more. That being said I don't use a true bias light but the very millennial RGB LED strip so I can't really speak to the soft white light working as intended but I like the look all the same.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment. I found this -
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_lighting
Tx, James Z.