LIGHTS!!

I have a quick tidbit today.  Not strictly music, but I thought it was interesting...

Have you ever heard the phrase "in the limelight"?  Have you ever wondered what it means?  The spot light isn't lime coloured.  The phrase comes from the mid-1800s, when a British engineer and inventor, Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, put into the practical use the phenomenon of burning hunks of lime.  Lime is a calcium based material, formally called calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide.  Anyway, when you get a really hot flame, fueled by alcohol and oxygen, you can burn a small piece of lime.  The result is an intense, white light. 

The light source was used, predictably, in lighthouses, but also, because the beam could be narrowed and focused, in theaters.  Hence, if you were in the limelight, you were some sort of star, worthy of being lit up by a bright beam.  Unfortunately, burning lime is also hazardous, as it caused a lot of fires.  According to a report published in 1899, nearly ten thousand people were killed in theater fires in Britain in the nineteenth century.



Much thanks to Bill Bryson and his wonderful new book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, for shining the light (ahem) on this fascinating nibble.