O Nata Lux

A small, but significant, victory today. About ten years ago, the tungsten lightbulbs in the Cathedral chandeliers were replaced with low energy bulbs. Financially - and environmentally - it was good sense. Aesthetically, it was a disaster. Bentley designed our light fittings for globular bulbs, which would imitate the pots of oil that burned in Byzantine churches. Their circular form was echoed in the spheres that decorate the chandelier hangings.
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The new fittings (above) were relatively unobjectionable when alight, but ghastly when not illuminated; four plastic 'pegs' doing unutterable violence to the original design.

Technology, as we hoped it would, has moved forward, and low wattage bulbs are now at last available in spherical form. Today we re-hung a chandelier with the new bulbs, which are exactly the same size and shape as the originals, and true to the architect's original vision!
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