re: Sucky-to-the-Max (tm) US Light

[Phil and Judy Rose <pjrose@servtech.com>]

>Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 13:55:31 CDT
>From: "Al Powell" <apowell@agcom.tamu.edu>
>Subject: Sucky-to-the-Max (tm) US Lights
>
>Arryn said about lights:
>
>>...for example to actually measure how much brighter they are?
>>Dad's giving me the 65w is 65w line, and why would DOT-spec be any
>>worse than E-spec, they're both government specifications.
>
>Arryn, 65w is a measure of the electricity used  - but it means
>nothing about how that light is applied.
>
>[snip good comments on lighting]
>
>One other issue: the US laws often lag considerably behind other
>countries.  I began running non-sealed beam Hella headlights in
>1977, when it was illegal to use anything but sealed beams in the US.
> Why? Because the Hellas were MUCH better at providing long range
>illumination than any sealed beams, even the (then-new) halogen ones.
>Laws in Europe allowed the use of quartz lights long before the US
>did.  The fact is that US laws are often passed MUCH more for reasons
>of politics than because of any basis in fact...and the lighting
>regulations were a great example.  (PS: I'm still using those Hella
>lamps today - in a 1985 Chevy pickup...and I still love 'em!)
>

Good points, Al. It's interesting how we in the US continually hold
ourselves up as being at the vanguard of change and progressivism. We seem
to have a penchant for berating the "old country" (i.e., the rest of the
world--especially Europe) as being behind the cutting edge, set in their
ways, too hidebound by tradition. The fact of the matter, IMHO, is that the
US can be as hidebound by petrified tradition as anyone--and often in areas
that really matter, such as vehicle safety, medicine, metrification, etc.
We can't even bring ourselves to have color variations to distinguish the
denominations of our paper currency.

Sorry. End of rant. Back to worrying about why my Audis are running without
problems lately.

Phil

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