Herbs and LEDs
The Skeptics
Scientists have been researching the potential of LED’s for over 50 years. Like all ideas that promise radical change, they were greeted with technical challenges and skepticism. Companies like SolarOasis were born in almost every niche of lighting. Made up of scientists, researchers, and engineers that realized the potential of light emitting diodes. With over a century of lighting research to draw from, they determined to overcome the obstacles, and presented the public with LED products that meet todays standards of practicality. The people are mobbing towards the light of the future. But even with the undeniable advantages of LEDs in grow lights, and massive global interest, thay have not eluded the skeptics. I am reminded of a parallel story. It took place over a century ago…
In the face of daunting technical challenges and skepticism from leading scientists and engineers, Edison and his team of experimenters and machinists found the solution to the decades-old problem of creating a practical incandescent lamp. The light bulb was the culmination of nearly a century’s worth of work and research on electrical lighting systems, most of it done by other inverntors. Edison’s contribution to this field was to synthesize all of the past work done on electrical lighting and to solve the lingering problems that had prevented these other inventors from creating a practical system. In December of 1879, Edison gave a demonstration of his new invention. As word spread to the general public, Edison’s lab was mobbed by visitors who flocked to see the light of the future.
Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb was not universally well-received. In the late 1870s, a British Parliamentary Committee assigned to investigate its value described the invention as “good enough for our transatlantic friends… but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men.” This quote from H.G. Wells comes from about the same period… “New and stirring things are belittled because if they are not belittled, the humiliating question arises, ’Why then are you not taking part in them?’ ” -AL
