Some Thoughts & Observations on Modern Vs Vintage Lighting - Part 2: Quality
Lighting has changed over time in line with not only the electrical safety enhancements I outlined in Part 1, but also due to the changing availability of materials, evolution of production methods, consumer culture and, most significantly, the drive to cut costs which leads to lower cost materials and off-shoring production to lower cost countries. These changes all impacted the quality of lighting.
Materials
When electrical lighting was first widely produced in the 1920s-40s, plastic was still a new material and the plastic in use was 'Bakelite', which doesn't have the same wide range of uses as modern plastics. So lighting used very little plastic until more modern forms and production methods were introduced, starting from the 1950s.
Steel was the primary metal used in lighting until the 1970s, with smaller components also made of steel or of brass.
From the 1970s the use of steel was increasingly replaced by lighter weight aluminium that had both cost and design advantages, as it is more malleable so easier to form. Smaller components were increasingly made of plastic.
Production Methods
Lighting manufacture originally involved a high degree of individual hand tooling, across multiple skilled trades, in small workshops and factories. In the mid twentieth century there were small enterprises making lighting dotted across every country in Europe.
Material and technological advances increasingly favoured larger manufacturers who could invest in the latest, cheapest production methods. Modern lighting is now almost entirely mass produced using very little individual input.
Once traditional manufacturing skills were no longer required, and driven by consumer demand for more, cheaper goods, it was only a matter of time before European lighting factories closed and manufacturing was moved to cheaper countries. These days only a handful of companies actually still manufacture lighting in Europe and the vast majority of modern lighting is made in China and other low cost countries.
Lighting Construction
So just how do these changes affect the actual construction of modern lighting? The answer is in a number of ways, none of them good. While modern lighting is generally safer than non-refurbished vintage lighting, it is generally of significantly poorer build quality and suffers from in-built obselescene.
Build Quality
The build quality of lighting is affected by changing materials. Extensive experience of working with lighting has left me able to accurately guage the age of some lamps by just feeling their weight!
Plastic - especially when exposed to light and heat - deteriorates over time compared to brass or steel. It becomes brittle and cracks easily, and threads are prone to losing their integrity.
Aluminium is a fantastic, durable material capable of producing beautiful shapes but in order save costs it has become increasingly thin leaving it more vulnerable to dents etc.
Coatings have become much thinner. Where once lighting had a thick enamel coating, now it is thinly factory-sprayed with a laquer which is much less durable. On the plus side the range of vivid colours and metallic finishes now available is amazing.
Lamps that were once made of solid copper, brass or iron are now made of aluminium coated with a lacquer in a metallic finish.
The overall impact is that build quality of the same model lamp - like the stunning Multi-lite in my photo - has changed considerably over the years. They still look beautiful but they are just not quite as beautifully built, and they are definitely no longer locally built.
READ NEXT: Modern Vs Vintage Lighting - Part 3: In-Built Obselescence and Summary