The Anglepoise lamp is a
balanced-arm lamp designed in 1932 by British designer George Carwardine.
History and development
George Carwardine (1887–1947) was a car designer and, at the same time he invented the Anglepoise lamp, (as a freelance) design consultant specialising in
vehicle suspension systems. While developing new concepts for vehicle suspensions, he created a mechanism which he recognised had applications in other fields. He particularly saw its benefits for a
task lamp. Despite many claims to the contrary, his concept had nothing whatsoever to do with mimicking the actions of the human arm. The joints and spring tension allow the lamp to be moved into a wide range of positions which it will maintain without being clamped.
Carwardine applied to be a patent, number 404,615, for a design using the mechanism on 4 July 1932, and manufactured the lamp himself in the workshops of his own company, Cardine Accessories, in
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
. He soon found the interest and demand so great that he needed a major expansion or partner and, on 22 February 1934, entered into a licensing agreement with Herbert Terry and Sons in
Redditch. Terry's manufactured and marketed the lamp, while Carwardine continued to develop the concept, producing a number of other versions and applications (for example, for supporting microphones). The original four-spring design was made for working environments, such as workshops and doctors' and dentists' surgeries, but he also designed a three-spring version for use in the home (patented on 10 February 1934, patent number 433,617).
1935 saw the release of the 1227 Anglepoise. An effective and revolutionary design, it was primarily manufactured for the home and proved to be extremely popular. The 1227 was hugely promoted by the Terry Spring Company and when the
Second World War broke in 1939, the company ran an advert that same day describing it as the "ideal blackout lamp".
Although the Second World War had a detrimental effect on standard Anglepoise production, the Terry Spring Company switched its objectives to benefit the war effort and, consequently, started producing Anglepoise lamps for bombers. According to the Anglepoise website, these were so well produced that when a crashed
Vickers Wellington bomber was salvaged from
Loch Ness in Scotland in 1985, the lamp still worked after being given a new battery – despite being submerged for around four decades.
A key feature of the Anglepoise design and patent is the placement of all springs (either three or four) near the base. The design was extensively copied by other companies, usually in simplified form, and is still in use. Some derivatives use a heavy balance weight instead of the springs. The most common version replaces the arm linkages with two independent
parallelogram linkages, with a pair of light tension springs on each half of the arm.
The arm has been employed in other devices where it is necessary to hold an object stationary at a convenient point in space, notably the copy holder for typists and in some applications, the computer display screen.
The lamps have been made from a variety of materials over the years, evolving from the early full steel prototypes into later models made from brass and aluminium.
Although the lamp is still marketed as an iconic British design, production for all lamps, except the 1227 Giant model, has been moved to China.
Anglepoise lamps at the BBC
In 1948 the Board of Governors of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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asked the head of the Variety Department, Michael Standing, to devise a guiding set of moral standards and protocols for the production of all BBC radio and television programmes. Standing produced what became known within the BBC as the "
Green Book", whose purpose was to eradicate smut, innuendo and vulgarity from all BBC programmes. After producing the book Standing took to implementing his guidance with eccentric zeal. In June 1949 he issued a memo to all staff in which he forbade BBC employees to illuminate any room with an Anglepoise lamp unless the main ceiling or wall light was also illuminated: Standing held a firm belief that a man working at a desk in a confined space with only the light from a low-wattage lamp would nurture furtive ideas and produce degenerate programme material. Director General Sir
William Haley
Sir William John Haley, KCMG (24 May 1901 – 6 September 1987) was a British newspaper editor and broadcasting administrator.
Biography
Haley grew up on the island of Jersey and attended Victoria College. In 1918 he began to study journ ...
later rescinded the Anglepoise lamp edict as extreme and unnecessary.
[ John Birt, The Harder Path (Time Warner Paperbacks, 2003),p.193.]
In culture
* "(I Wanna Be an) Anglepoise Lamp" 1978 single by
the Soft Boys
The Soft Boys were an English rock band led by Robyn Hitchcock primarily during the 1970s, whose initially old-fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of '' Underwater Moonlight''. ...
.
* The protagonist of
Salman Rushdie's 1980 novel ''
Midnight's Children
''Midnight's Children'' is a 1981 novel by Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a post ...
'',
Saleem Sinai, makes repeated references to the Anglepoise lamp in the light of which he writes.
*
Peter Gabriel's "
Shock the Monkey
"Shock the Monkey" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in September 1982 as the second single from his fourth self-titled album, issued in the US under the title ''Security''.
The song peaked at number 29 on the U ...
" 1982 video features "dancing" Anglepoise lamps.
* UK post-rock band
Fridge
A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...
released the "Anglepoised" EP in 1997, compiled on ''
Sevens and Twelves''.
* The film company
Pixar's first short film ''
Luxo Jr.'' featured an animated
Luxo
Luxo ASA is a Norwegian manufacturer of lamps. Based in Oslo, it has sales throughout Europe and North America, with production plants in Norway, Sweden and Keila, Estonia. The company was founded in 1934 and was listed on the Oslo Stock Excha ...
balanced-arm lamp, who is subsequently featured in all their title sequences.
* In the 2013 album ''
Bambi
''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book '' Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...
'',
Momus used the springs from an Anglepoise Lamp to double for cymbals and coil
reverb.
See also
*
Balanced-arm lamp
*
Industrial design
*
Over-illumination
Overillumination is the presence of lighting intensity higher than that which is appropriate for a specific activity. Overillumination was commonly ignored between 1950 and 1995, especially in office and retail environments.M.D. Simpson, ''A fl ...
* The
Luxo
Luxo ASA is a Norwegian manufacturer of lamps. Based in Oslo, it has sales throughout Europe and North America, with production plants in Norway, Sweden and Keila, Estonia. The company was founded in 1934 and was listed on the Oslo Stock Excha ...
lamp, a 1937 Norwegian derivative of the Anglepoise design
References
External links
DesignMuseum.org The Design Museum page on the lamp and its development / history.
www.anglepoise.com Maker's home page
Angelpoise collection Angelpoise collection
The Anglepoise: a History Harry Langworthy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglepoise Lamp
Lighting brands
Types of lamp
British brands