an enternal light in every socket - solar street lamp

By N. R.
Kleinfield march 1986 this is a digital version of an article from The Times Print Archive, before it starts online in 1996.
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Practicality is one of his features and Kevin Keating likes to stick to itreally last.
So when it comes to choosing a light bulb for his home, he used that bulb for half a century. Half a century? So Mr. Keating says -
He made the light bulb.
At the age of 34, he was the founder and president of dilight Technology Inc.
A small company in Pontiac, Michigan.
This is the market for "forever" bulbs.
Sir, two or three hours a day.
If the cat doesn't turn the light over, the light bulb will glow for 50 years, Keating said.
Take the opportunity to ensure that the bulb will never change.
The company has also produced a tubular bulb for use at the exit signs above the doors in places such as office buildings and restaurants.
According to the law, the exit sign must keep the light on 24 hours, so the life of the light is important.
The product will burn 80,000 hours, or 9 years, about 80 times the life of most traditional bulbs, and it guarantees a bulb life of 4 years, says diorlight.
Dioclight was founded about four years ago in a non-alloy atmosphere. success -
Even now, major bulb manufacturers like General Electric and GTE suspect a big market for their products.
Advertising for "first year"
Keating remembers, "We can't send out a light bulb.
But this year, he said his company would sell 1 million of the shares.
Of course, no one can know for a long time whether the diollight bulb will still shine after half a century.
There's no longer burning than Mr.
Three and a half years ago, Keating installed a light bulb on his porch, but it was not cheap.
The export bulb costs $6.
99 and home lights sold by mail
The order catalog is $4.
99, five to six times the traditional similar intensity bulb.
And expensive trade.
Off: compared to standard bulbs with the same wattage, the light emitted by the diollight bulb is reduced by about 30%, so in order to get the same brightness, you have to use a higher-
A wattage bulb that consumes more power.
Many competitors think Kevin Keating and half of hima-
The century light bulb is just a lot of irrelevant things. Lite-
Trooper International has been offering 20,000-
For about 15 years, the hourly bulb has only achieved modest success.
Don Thomas, commercial engineering manager, lighting division, USA, GTE, said: "I think this is more of a marketing than a technological advancement . ".
Sophisticated buyers, he argues, will find that economics makes no sense: "We have put our pencils on them and don't have to pay.
Last fall, GTE announced a new Capsylite bulb with a design lasting 3,500 hours with no loss of brightness.
It costs three times as much as traditional bulbs. Mr.
Thomas thinks the light bulb has enough life.
GE does not seem to be moving.
"The idea has been around for 20 years," said Terry McGowan, a lighting technical support expert at GE Lighting Group.
"If people are very sensitive to the life of the bulb and don't like to replace it, then this is a good way to extend the life of the bulb.
We are not too excited about it.
We don't think there are so many markets. ''Yet even G. E.
, Has long believed that consumers do not want to pay for a long time
Living a light bulb, admitting that if it's expensive to change a light bulb, it's possible to pay to have something like diorlight.
"My most familiar example is ,"
"The Kennedy Center in Washington," mcgaowan said ".
The cost of replacing a light bulb in a concert hall chandelier is about $20,000 because they have to erect a scaffold and use a lot of people.
"Of course, things are different at home.
Typical homeowners don't care much about whether the light bulbs next to the sofa will lose their lives in six months or 600.
So if they decide to buy a forever bulb it might be designated out-of-the-
Road attractions, such as outside the porch or above the garage, homeowners find it uncomfortable to sit on a ladder when trying to screw in a new light bulb. Mr.
Keating is an excellent company president who has his light bulb at Mich in Birmingham.
, Home, including the sink, bathroom, bedside table in the bedroom, there are 50 places in total.
He reluctantly admitted that he had two G. E. three-
Light bulb in living room.
In this country, incandescent advertising worth $2 billion is purchased annually.
This is a stable business, up only about 1% last year.
Like many deeply rooted industries, it is highly concentrated.
Three bulbs-G. E.
Market leaders GTE and Philips in North America recently acquired the bulb business in Westinghouse --
S. sales are estimated to be 90%.
Most of the revenue from the Big Three comes from burning 750 to 1,000 hours of light bulbs.
However, about 4% of the industry is in the long term
Some small companies are also competing for the money.
The biggest of them is Douro-
A testing company that can burn 20,000 hours of light bulbs.
With so little growth and so much concentration, it is very rare for anyone who is trying a light bulb to make a living. The reason Mr.
Kiating believes that there is one thing that is worth mentioning in dioclight, that is, commercial and industrial users constantly burn out bulbs and they have to pay maintenance personnel to replace dead bulbs.
Therefore, they are very interested in the rich light bulb life.
Despite his high hopes
Keating has no illusions of closing G. E.
Light bulb factory.
'I don't think we will have any impact on the big three,' he said.
His goal is to have a 2% share in the market by 1990 and move forward happily.
His competitors in small companies remain skeptical.
Robert Sorenson, president of Lite, said: "Any manufacturer can produce their productsTronics.
"Frankly, I don't think their bulbs will reach the design life," he said . ".
"One of the main reasons to kill the bulb is vibration.
Their Mounting structures are not designed to accept vibration.
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View all New York Times newsletters. Mr.
Keating said to his competitors that what he did was easy.
He sneered and said, "No one knows what to say . "
"No one can make the bulbs we are making.
"Some customers who put light bulbs near the rumbling elevator, Sir
Keating admitted that their misfortune suffered premature death.
The company is strengthening construction, he said, but denies it is a major concern.
Kevin Keating is a rich man.
His father, Howard Keating, runs a thriving real estate company in Birmingham, Michigan.
Howard T.
Keating partner
Kevin Keating, after earning a business degree from Atlantic University, Florida, went to sell a house for his father.
He may also be in and out with young families.
If the economic downturn did not cause home sales in suburban Detroit to almost disappear in 1979.
"That place is dead . "Keating says.
"I just gave birth to my first child. I needed money.
So he gave up real estate and went to work for a company called Power Disc that sold diodes that were designed to be fixed to the bottom of the bulb, to change the current flowing into the bulb from AC.
Since the DC does not wear the filament as quickly as it is now, the button-
The shape of the device can give the bulb a longer life.
The disadvantage is that the diode reduces the voltage and greatly reduces the lighting, sometimes even by 70%.
The diode can also melt in the socket, causing an unwelcome fire. One day, Mr.
Keating wants to know why the diodes can't be stuck in the light bulb, reducing the disadvantages of danger, and can then enhance the lighting with special gases.
He asked a Power Disc executive about the matter.
His answer is that this is a very stupid idea.
He said in an advertisement
Keating asked Russell Monahan, an old friend of the mechanical engineer.
He started working and created a prototype.
They still don't know if the bulbs can be made economically. When Mr.
Keating tried to collect some information from the bulb maker and they told him he was lost.
The manufacture of bulbs is technically a complex task, and bulb companies are not in a hurry to show break-ins how they do it. Mr.
However, Keating found a company called Marvel lighting in S. Mulligan. C.
, Occasionally allows harmless individuals to pass through its plants.
Therefore, a trick was planned in the fall of 1980. Mr.
Keating's brother. in-
Engineer Luo told marvel that he was a student working on a master's thesis in bulb manufacturing.
Well, Marvel told him, come down.
He said he wanted to bring his brother Kevin, who he thought was a pastor, if there was no trouble.
Marvel said it was a pleasure to have clergy.
So with his brotherin-
The law doodles crazily on a piece of paper, and Kevin Keating looks very religious, and the secrets of bulb making follow.
The two concluded that half of them
It is true that immortal bulbs can be made. Heartened, Mr.
Keating collected $150,000 from his friends and father and founded diorlight in June 1982.
However, when he went to buy a manufacturer, he got repeated touches before he finally found a lamp maker in Taiwan.
On March 1983, the first export sign bulb came out. no one wanted it.
It took a lot of time for the rest of the year to attract dealers.
In 1984, the company sold about 250,000 light bulbs, doubling sales last year to about 500,000, worth about $1 million.
Despite the reluctance of the founders to say how big the losses are, dioclight continues to accumulate considerable losses.
The company is still a long way from its 2% market share target. Mr.
Keating admitted that finding more money to invest in the company was his top challenge.
Still, there are some happy Dio = Light customers.
Bill Roberts bought the Richard and Rice restaurants in Birmingham, Michigan.
Two years ago, the fire department suddenly checked and found that one of the two exit lights was burnt out. So Mr.
Roberts bought the light bulb and screwed it on the door.
"We have no problem," he said . "
"They are still burning, burning, burning.
"Bill Luther, director of building operations, Warren GM Technology Center, Michigan.
Found when G. E.
The West House export bulb he bought has expired.
The old one will only last for three months, he said.
"This is a very irritating thing.
You send an electrician. when he takes the ladder and puts the light bulb in, you say it for an hour.
These people earn $20 an hour.
"He tried some light bulbs three years ago.
He said that some of them gave up after two years and still lived a good life, while others continued to burn.
Now he has about 100 bright spots. Mr.
Keating has started working on other lighting projects, including an attempt to develop a street lamp powered by the sun.
"In the next five years ,"
"We think we have the longest time," Keating said.
Long lasting solar street lights.
It has no energy cost at all.
It will last 80,000 hours.
"People may let us down," he added . "
They forgot what G was. E. started.
It started with a young man who invented a light bulb, his name is Thomas Edison. ''DioLight, Mr.
Keating quickly pointed out that it has had a good light bulb for three and a half years.
Only 46 1/2.
A version of the article appears in print on March 16, 1986, and on page 3003011 of the national edition, the title is: there is a small light on each socket.