Beyond the red light
I love learning trivia. Most of it is exactly that. Things that will never change my life. However, this week I had a deep question answered. Why did my first electronic calculator purchased back around 1980 have red digits? Really red digits. Why not some other colour? It was some years later that I saw my first green digits and all I could think was that science was evolving. I mean with red and green you could rule the world. Little did I know that, the absence of other colours, was because the technology had not yet been invented. Until someone, in Japan, managed to produce the first blue LED. Stay with me on this one. Finally having red green and blue meant you could move to the next step. Production of other colours. I do not fully understand the technology involved but apparently red green and blue allow white. And probably other colours of the rainbow. By this point the common calculator had already evolved into large multi segment digits. Colour was not quite as important. But hold on because there was more to come. Those first decent computer monitors that could do full colour could never have happened without this simple advance in technology. I know that when we purchased our first flat screen monitors for use in our office, getting rid of those big heavy screens that were essentially a television made all the difference. No more hernia for technician and a lot more desktop space for the secretary. And the reduction in the electricity bill. Try to imagine that a laptop required a television monitor to get the job done. It never would have happened. I got rid of my calculator several decades ago. A dead battery that would no longer take a charge. I also had reduced my need for simple mathematical mastery. Most of the math I needed could be done using my fingertips just like in the good old days. And as I look around the house I am fully aware that we have evolved on all over technology. No more single colour bits of light. Even my camera has a full colour display. And our TV? That’s a big screen although somewhere in the interior, the technology of the LED lives on. For what it is worth I have never owned Nixie tube calculator although have used one. That was really old school. And throughout the house we now have low current LED lights. Reduces my monthly payments to the utility company. Makes the idea of solar possible although we’re not quite there yet. But think about that. If not for a diligent scientist working in a lab somewheres in Japan, we would still be happily living in incandescent world. And paying the bill.
