#425: Lumostat

In olden, ie pre-Edison, times we had streets lit by flickering gas lamps (if we were lucky). Now that electricity is a more usual power source, why do we still have static, uniform levels of light output?

It always seems crazy to me that city streets, already lit by shop windows and signs, are doubly lit by such civic lights.

Today’s invention aims to save a lot of money by enabling such lamps to sense the local ambient light level and adapt the intensity of their output to achieve a constant level of illumination. This would allow many lamps to run at reduced power and provide a more consistent, and therefore safe, visual environment.