The electrical system that we had 50 years ago is effectively the one that existed in 1973. It is startling to me to realise that this is 50 years ago; however, such is the case. The electrical system effectively had electric lights which were incandescent lamps (the smallest of which was about 16 W).

We also had fluorescent lamps (the smallest of which was 11 W) and that was more or less how it was, except for a whole lot of neon lamps, which were of various types and kinds. In general, the small sizes I have just mentioned were not in wide use and almost always were 50 W fluorescent lamps and 100 W incandescent lamps. There were few colours of electric lamps apart from transparent or white and, in general, this suited everybody because they were generally inexpensive, lasted for an acceptable time and provided adequate lighting.

The situation hardly changed in the 1980s. By ‘hardly changed’ I mean in South Africa. There were more changes in the rest of the world, but there was no need for change. Change would mean the alteration of the lamps to smaller lamps that gave the same light level for less power. This would cost more money, which nobody thought was desirable. The change in lamps came from a situation whereby the cost of electric lamps increased as a result of the lamps becoming more sophisticated and thus more expensive.

When engineers discovered that they could make fairly sophisticated lamps that were smaller and cheaper to operate, but nevertheless produced the same light, a sort of worldwide alteration took place whereby lamps became increasingly cheaper but produced the same amount of light. This continued to develop to the extent that electric lamps (particularly fluorescent lamps) went from being more or less 60 W to more or less 6 W. Similarly, other lamps reduced in size (in terms of power consumption). We now are in a position where electric lamps have such low consumption that they produce just the capacity required. They are not going to get any smaller.

One immediately questions this with the possibility that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can produce very low capacity and are very small. Essentially, LEDs will fill part of the electric lamp requirement. How, I am not sure. Is there any further development possible? Essentially, one recognises lamps with very small capacity have an almost infinite variation in type. In the 50 years to come, is there another lamp or lighting option we have not yet thought of?

It is difficult to conceive of what this might be, but we could set a few parameters that would be part of such a lamp system. The first one would be to light a system without using any wires and send power through the air. This was undertaken by Nikola Tesla almost 100 years ago in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, which was an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter. Unfortunately, he ran out of funding before he could complete it.

The second parameter, possibly an obvious one, would be to make sure the lighting system lasts forever. This may seem obvious, but it hasn’t been done yet. The third would be a lighting system which is apparently invisible in nature, but which produces light permanently when it is needed. It is hard to conceive exactly what is meant by this; you’ll just have to accept the phrase ‘produces lighting when needed’.

The main thing about a future lighting system we would want is a lighting system that is unlike the present system in that it does not have to be switched on or off and which has a soft fading in and out of the lighting (unlike present systems). Whatever is introduced, there are a few things that are absolutely certain. Firstly, I am unlikely to be around to see such a system. Secondly, one will have to accept that some dwellings and places will be far in advance in their ownership of such systems while others will still be far behind.