lauren (04/08/83)
Yeah, that's right -- they use sodium. Why the hell did I think magnesium -- I should know better -- POOF! As for why they turn on and off alot... 1) You can forget about the driving at dawn theory. They tend to blink on and off on a 3 to 5 minute cycle all night long. I've seen *many* of these lamps doing this. Of course, it's a small number compared with total lamps, but it's seen alot more often than might be expected. 2) Nope, it's not power hits. The fellows who "fixed" the one in front of my house mentioned something about a bad "control element" or something like that, but rushed off without giving me any details. They told me that they saw the problem all the time. Perhaps it *is* somehow a heat-related problem that can be cured through proper adjustment at the lamp... --Lauren--
smb (04/08/83)
Is there any chance that the individual lights simply have their own photocells?
warren (04/08/83)
The streetlamp problem may be something as simple as a thermal circuit breaker that is incorrectly adjusted and shuts the lamp off if it runs too long. I haven't observed the problem, and in fact one thing I have noticed about the things is how symetric and even they look in Chicago when you land at O'hare at night. Either there are a lot of city workers out there fixing the defective ones or there aren't many that malfunction, since I have never noticed holes in the patterns made by the things. One more note I have heard about these lamps is that they can kill trees and other plants that get too much of the light, since it contains the right wavelengths to stimulate growth, causing the tree to try to grow 24H/day. I agree, definitely a misc topic. -- Warren Montgomery ihnss!warren IH x2494