[Richard Johnson]

***Gas and oil lamps really didn't flicker that much - Until not long ago a fishing lodge I used to go to would use them as the owner didn't want to turn on the generator for the electicity.... and I was surprised how stable they were - but thinking about it, they were specifically designed to minimise it, so unless weather was inclement the light would always be relatively steady. Scaling it down you'll need to be incredibly subtle to make it worth while... the softglow is much more important.

What you will find is that you will need a LOT of resistance to get the level low enough with a prototype white LED.....

Regards

Richard

 

[Richard Johnson]

*** A bit of a coincidence.... here is a cut and paste from a post I just read on an E-list which was discussing the same subject!

Quote:

I think there is a lot of mis-remembering of how things were back in the
bad old days.

Gas lights - the type that used an incandescent mantle burned with an
intense white light. (There were still gas lamps at Wembley Hill station
in the early 1970s.)

Open gas burners would have burned with a yellow flame - but would have
been very very rare in the 20th century.

Paraffin oil lamps burn with a yellow flame. A properly trimmed lamp
does not flicker. The flame may waver a bit - especially on the front of
an moving engine - but flicker no! Signal lamps were expected to burn
for up to a week in between visits from the lamp man. So they were
designed to be reliable.

Let us not forget acetylene lamps - a much whiter flame than paraffin.
Many larger stations used acetylene. Acetylene is made by dripping water
at a controlled rate into a container of calcium carbide. There is at
least one 'carbide storage bin still outside Euston station - but the
legend has worn off/been graffitied.