Consuming Interest
Something Nasty
By LESLIE ADRIAN It is just another of the penalties of the age of substitutes. Unable to buy a glass 'tulip' shade for the bathroom (suspended lighting arrange' ments are 'out,' you know, in spite of the fact that nine out of ten homes are still equipped with them), 1 bought a plastic one, made of with them), I bought a plastic one. After sonic months of use, over nothing stronger than a seventy-five-watt bulb, it turned yellow at the top, then began to distort and turn brown. All this time it was emitting a fearful smell.
In the unsuccessful search for a glass replace' ment I found a sensible plastic shade, in manY shapes and colours. Made by Rotaflex, they do not discolour nor emit smells, provided they are used with bulbs of a suitable strength. Each shade carries a label telling the buyer the maxi- mum strength of bulb to be used with it. If you cannot find them easily (Selfridges sell them), write to Rotaflex (Great Britain) Ltd., 4 Conduit Street, London, WI.
It still arouses my anger to see the way in which the makers of plastics products continue to assume that the teething troubles of these materials are over. Apart from the fact that some of them will not tolerate working temperatures, as with many types of lampshade, ,including that flocked, mock parchment for table lamps, they could be dangerous. Some of the plastic shades used with high-wattage bulbs not only melt, they catch fire. And, in spite of their high cost, Bakelite and polystyrene plugs and sockets crack, even without heat, revealing live brass conductors beneath. An example came to my notice recently of a woman getting a shock off a lighting fitting because the Bakelite had split off the edge of the brass socket.
I do not doubt that the right materials can be made (almost any plastic is •better than the old brass and porcelain); they may even be in existence already. if the makers of electrical fit- tings would read their technical periodicals with more attention, they might find out about them. At the same time they could take up my now ancient suggestion that the British Standard should be followed for all lighting fittings.
Talking of light, when I last wrote enthusi- astically about the Mazda Netabulb, there was the usual crop of unlucky users whose bulbs had blown prematurely and who consequently denounced the mushroom-shaped lamp. My Netabulbs are still working after more than a year. Osram are now making mushroom shapes, too.
'Seems to me sundown gels curlier every evening.' In February, 1960, I commended the furni- ture store of Harrison Gibsons for continuing to offer their 'Late Night Viewing' service at their two new stores in Ilford and Bromley. Though the store had been prosecuted for it under the Shops Act by the Ilford Borough Council and fined, they were able to keep up the service because they had appealed against the decision. Now I hear that this admirable example of sales initiative has been abandoned on legal advice; the appeal will not be made.
This may be sound in law, but I find it hard to see why a store should be prosecuted for not sell- ing after ordinary shop hours—merely for leav- ing its doors open to people who wanted to browse around, without salesmen breathing down their necks. The 'Late Night Viewing' took place on Tuesday nights from 7 to 9.30 p.m., the idea being to encourage viewers to regard their inside window shopping as a kind of leisurely after-dinner sport with the help of coffee and biscuits, free parking space and a creche for babies in the building.
A compromise service, however, has been or- ganised now which is called 'Leisure Buying': the store stays open, for selling, from 5.30 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday evenings. A sorry victory for Ilford.
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