Glass Globes, Light, and Volcanoes (1898)

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

I happened upon these lovely technical drawings --in plan and cross section--of the newly-patented Holophane Globe. The inventors and coiners of the Holophane were French scientist Andre Bondel and the Turkish Spiridion Psaroudak who patented their illuminating globe in the U.S. in 1896 (and five other countries between 1893-1895). It was designed with inverted and excised cuts in the glass dome to refract and reflect the interior lighting source, and successfully illuminated more area with "less light waste" than most other globes. Not only was the design effective, but the effects were also pretty, as were the schematics of the globe.  (The profile and plan remind me of some early engravings and woodcut of the interior of the Earth showing the sources of volcanic action...or in the case of our not-recently-mentioned friend Athanasius Kircher, the source of water.)

• Source: "The Holophane Glass Globes for Effecting the Better Diffusion and Distribution of Artificial Light", Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol 145, April 1898. The article is a technical review of the glass globe and wound up being highly favorable, awarding the inventors the John Scott Legacy Medal for their invention, "...for [the invention] of a globe that secures much better diffusion and more satisfactory distribution than any other globe..."