The first one I
remember was
essentially a string. It hung down from the ceiling in the basement
fruit room.
Whenever I entered, I reached for the string in the dark and gave it a
pull.
The light came on. I prayed I wouldn't see a mouse, but loved to pull
the string. Sounds silly, but as a kid, I yanked that string a
good many times. The light in our bedroom turned off and on with a
little,
silver chain. The light bulb sat in the socket with the chain hanging
below. My
sister would make me turn off the light then find my way back to the bed
we shared. More times than not she would hide before I got back into bed
then scare me. She was good at it.
My grandfather had a light switch. Well, it wasn't a switch like we have now
but a knob that turned the lights off and on. He also had brass switch plates
with two buttons. One button turned on the lights. And, you can imagine the
purpose of the other. I think those might be my favorite switches. Many years
later lights turned on with the silent lifting of a switch bar or the pushing
of one end of the button. I can track my history by light switches.
Now we have lights that dim, are on timers, have motion sensors and can be
turned on or off by the clapping of hands. You can get on your computer and turn your
lights off and on at home. Car lights turn on before we ever get into the car.
Lights seem to automatically follow us around by no effort of our own. I sense
a bit of laziness in my hands. They occasionally have the urge to push a light
button again. My grandkids won't have any idea what the old light switches were
all about. They won't know the thrill of walking into a dark room reaching out
for a light string. The won't know the thrill of pushing the buttons or
reaching for a dusty light bulb hanging from a cord. Those were usually in the
barn.
I'm not sure how much more progression can be made in this history of light
switches. Maybe next we will use the 'think method'. All I can say is
"what a switch".
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