 
Lighting up is my business
Man has been using artificial
lighting since old times. In the beginning he used logfire for this
purpose. Later he started using a wick on the edge of a stone bowl
filled with animal fat. After that came the production of candles.
  The revolutionary invention in this field was the electric blub in
1878 by Thomas Edision. This was the period in America and Europe, men
who had reached academic heights led the way to mechanical civilization.
The civil war had stopped. The energies of the country had been
released for a burst of business enterprises, of speculation, of
material progress generally.
My father had the faculty of making things work, of bringing things
to pass, of overcoming obstacles. In turn lent the first real impetus to
the new profession of electrical engineering; and from it grew
manufactures of great variety and wide extent.
He made me to see the first light of this world and it was in the
year 1930. At first a cylindrical tube consisting of a long glass tube
coated with a fluorescent material was introduced to my body.
Two tungsten glass tubes are evacuated and filled with a little
amount of mercury and argon gas. The tube is connected with the electric
line. Tungsten electrodes get heated up and start producing electrones.
These electrons collide with mercury atoms and produce ultraviolet and
visible light. Ultra violet light, on colliding with fluorescent
material, produces visible light. The colour of this light depends upon
the fluorescent material.
 The tubes are, created with calcium tungsten to produce blue light. A
coating of calcium silicate produces pink colour. While that of zinc
silicate produces green light. It is a very useful light source. Its
electric consumption is very low, but the light producing efficiency
very high. By now I have become a big made woman. All eyes were turned
on me. I was known as the fluorescent tube! Normally, a fluorescent tube
can be lighted 80 - 40 hours with one unit of electricity. It has a
voltage of 40 watt.
As I advanced in age and became popular I became commercially viable.
There was a big demand. I had a lot of admirers and lovers who sought
me. My best lovers who wanted to posses me were business tycoons. So
they took me to a big shopping mall for a display. Here I was picked up
by a rich mudalali who took me home.
I was greeted in royal style by his wife and children. They gave me a
prominent place in their huge dinner hall. I had the best of company,
dining with the rich and meeting the cream of society. It was a novel
experience for me. Coming a long way since older times man has been
using logfire for lighting. Today I live as a proud person who has
contributed very much to society by providing electric lighting as a
fluorescent tube.
-Tissa Hewavitarane
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