By Spencer Cutright

Let’s face it: no summer vacation is complete without plenty of pictures. With the invention of the “selfie stick” and apps like Instagram and Snapchat, taking pictures has never been so user friendly, and photography has never been more prevalent than it is today.

However, this would not be possible if flash photography had never been invented. It’s hard to believe, but flash wasn’t always as common or safe as it is today. Here is a brief look at the history of flash photography.

Flash photography originally began as an unsafe and incredibly intricate device known as the flash lamp, which was invented in 1899. Photographers would fill a pan with flash powder, which was then ignited, leading to a small explosion that produced a quick flash. The flash lamp is known for being very unsafe, and many photographers who used it were either killed or injured in the process.

Around the 1930s, flash bulbs replaced flash powder. Oxygen-filled bulbs were electricity ignited, producing a quick bright flash. However, the bulbs could only be used once, and they were often too hot to handle right after the flash.

Thirty years after the flash bulb, the cheaper and more efficient electronic flash was invented. Electronic flashers are often attached to a camera and produce an instantaneous and very bright flash through a flash tube when a picture is taken.

Found on camera phones as early as 2000, LED flash uses high current LEDs to produce a quick flash when a picture is taken. LED flash makes flash photography efficient and miniaturized.

So next time you pull out our camera or smartphone to capture a special moment this summer, keep in mind all the inventors who made modern photography possible.  The future of photography is certainly bright with many possibilities ahead.

Placing electrical safety in Manassas first is the best rule of thumb where electricity is involved. Did you know that most electrical accidents in the home happen near water? Since that’s the case, we’ll start off with that important electrical safety tip. Here’s that one and four more designed to keep you and your family safe in your Manassas home.

You and your family should always feel safe and secure in your Manassas home. In this digital age when everything from toys to tools to technology relies on electricity, electrical safety in Manassas will help keep you up and running safely.

Without a service panel upgrade, homeowners will experience several issues due to an outdated panel. Flickering lights, odd sounds from a fuse box, tripping breakers, and even even cars that require this kind of circuit.

If you’re constantly dealing with lighting issues or your outlets just don’t seem to work as well as they use to, then don’t procrastinate. Upgrading your service panel can clearly help in so many ways, especially when it comes down your family and their safety. Always call an electrician if you sense a problem with your service panel, that way they can assess the issue and clearly identify a solution.

The existing lighting solutions are efficient and provide us the kind of illumination we need; however, they are binary devices. They generally have only one switch that can be used to turn them on/off. In addition, you have to physically be present to operate them. It’s how electrical lighting has been since it was first introduced towards the end of the 19th century. Of course, the time was ripe for a change and that came in the form of smart lighting.

These lights have a completely different working; they make use of local infrastructure, either wireless/wired and provide much more control over various factors such as the colour & brightness of the bulbs you are using as well as the exact time at which they will get switched on etc.

In short, this gives us the scope to use smart lighting for regular home use, in security lighting (to keep miscreants and other unsavoury elements at bay), as well as lighting for all types of special occasions. This control also helps add to the energy efficiency and lowers your power bills as timers can be used to control exactly at what schedules and timings the lights should come and be switched off.

But that’s not the end of it. You also have a choice of a variety of Internet-based tools that can be used to manage the automation of your lighting installations; and you can do this either from your office a few kilometres away from home or from thousands of kilometres away, from across the globe. That is the beauty of smart lighting!!

When it comes to smart lighting installations, there are a couple of different approaches. This is based on whether you choose to:

If you opt for the former, the lights will be controlled using smart switches/relays. In case you choose the self-installed solutions, there are a range of products to choose from; smart bulbs being the commonest and most popular solution. In appearance, these bulbs are almost like the regular bulbs you already use, but they tend to be a tad more expensive than the latter.

All these can be installed in a hassle-free manner and then directly connected to the Wi-Fi network in your home. But that isn’t how all smart lighting solutions work. There are more complex smart lighting installations which use the lighting infrastructure (that already exists on your property), in addition to a wider network of smart switches and a variety of other automation solutions that are pieces of a broader home automation project.

If this is what you are considering to install on your premises, it’s important that you get a skilled and licensed professional to tackle the job. Keep in mind that the service provider and the products you choose will vary greatly in cost and that’s what you’d have to keep in view wile allocating a budget for your smart lighting project.

Regardless of the option you choose, while the upfront cost would be higher than that of traditional lighting solutions, you will save a significant amount of money on your energy bills, in the long term. For more smart lighting ideas and the best electrical solutions, call Allround Electrical at 1300 169 263. You can also drop us a line via email.

Thanks for reading,1300 169 263

Power cables are the basic components of any electrical system. There are different types of cables that are available in the market. The choice of which specific cable types should be used for specific purposes is based on several factors, the most important of them being the technical specifications of the functions.

As much as you may be conversant with electric cables, it is possible that there are things about power cables that are new to you. Here is a brief outline of some of the things about power cables:

Many people believe that copper is a far better conductor of electricity than aluminium at all times. This is inaccurate. When it comes to matters of what type of conductor is better between these two metals, there are many factors that need to be taken into account.

The most important one of them is that conductivity in relation to cable wires is not merely a function of the measure of resistivity but rather a unique combination of the size of the cables and the insulation material that is used. Hence, in cases where super-high voltages have to be used over long distances, it becomes economical for one to use aluminium cables as opposed to copper ones.

It is common to hear people talk of the possibility of their current cable capacity to remain stable forever. Incidentally, this is a common misconception about electrical cables that people hold.

However, the truth of the matter is that the cable current capacity changes all the time and does not remain stable over the lifetime of the cables. These changes are usually caused by factors such as the prevailing ground or air temperature, the actual manner in which the laying has been carried out and the depth at which the cables have been laid.

There are several reasons as to why newly installed power cables do last as long as people expect them to. The first one is that since there are many manufacturers of electric cables, it is highly unlikely that all the power cables that you install will last for a specific period of time.

The second one is that there are many different types of power cables. A specific type of power cable is defined in terms of its capacity, durability, usage and other industry-specific characteristics.

The third one is that the extent to which a cable lasts heavily relies on the manner in which the installation is done. A poorly done installation may significantly shorten the life of a cable.

The armor that is used on your cable is not meant to help in protecting the cable against any chances of physical impact. On the contrary, if any type of power cable is exposed to a form of physical stress, it is possible that the damage to the cable arising from the impact is likely to be aggravated by the armor!