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John Ott, light pioneer
Whole Earth Review, Fall, 1988 by Ramon Sender Barayon
"The good news is that we have had excellent reports from several places where they have installed our fullspectrum radiation-shielded fluorescent fixtures in computer rooms. The people working there have said they feel so much better, and no longer have the headaches and eyestrain and other problems. Of course when you do something for somebody, there's a psychological effect and they feel better. We have to be certain that there is more than just a psychological effect, and plan to do a series of tests using this blood-clumping result."
"I recently placed a black light over my video display terminal and leave it on when I work at my computer," I said. "Is there such a thing as getting too much black light?"
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"Of course there's always the problem of getting too much of anything, including oxygen. The lights that we are making, of course, have the proper-size tube for the number and size of visible light tubes in each fixture, Vhat size tube do you have?" "About eighteen inches."
"Well one of those I am sure would be all right. Of course our fluorescent tubes are protected with lead foil on the ends where the cathodes emit x-ray radiation, and the fixtures in addition to the ultraviolet transmitting plastic diffusers have a wire grid to ground their radio frequency. Also, in my book I recommend using the daylight incandescent bulb in the place of the regular one. The daylight has the blue glass which cuts down on the excessive amount of red which comes from the ordinary incandescent light bulb.
"You can get the Vita-Lite which I developed twenty-five years ago with the Duro-Test company, but that was just adding ultraviolet phosphor into their fluorescent tubes of the full visible-spectrum type developed originally for color-matching purposes. They added the ultraviolet directly into the tube and then found that the phosphor had only an effective burning life of about one-third of the visible ones. It's gone long before the tube finally burns out, and there's no easy way to tell when it occurs. That's why with the new OttLite we have added the small black-light tube separately."
"What about these Gro-Lites that people use for indoor plants?" "I've got one here and I'm trying to get a spectral analysis of it to see how much UV it has, But it's my understanding that the Gro-Lite has that bluish glass similar to the daylight incandescent. I'm not certain it actually gives off any ultraviolet. That's something I'm working on right now." I asked him how he felt at having his years of work finally vindicated. "Of course I am really pleased at the interest being shown now," he replied. "The scientific community is beginning to recognize that light is an important variable that should be considered and controlled, especially in research laboratories. As I have said in my articles, I have been trying to bring lighting under scientific control rather than leaving it up to the janitor and building maintenance."
As of the summer of 1988, there are now four special issues of the International journal of Biosocial Research devoted to John Ott's work. The latest covers more recent findings, including interesting case histories. Experiments with bean plants placed in front of an IBM PC Jr, set from three to six feet away from the screens, produced severely mottled leaves. When removed from the area, the plants began producing normal leaves. Ott also discusses a popular variety of sunglasses which only passes the orange-red-pink part of the spectrum, the exact wavelengths he has proved to cause laboratory animals to lose their tails, show excessive calcium deposits in heart tissue, grow large tumors and exhibit extreme behavioral problems. Recent research on Langerhans cells found in human skin makes Ott speculate that the cells are actually biological solar cells, passing solar energy into the body. Currently the line of Ott lights is being expanded to include a one-by-two-foot portable model. They are being marketed as the Ott Safety Computer Light, and preliminary experiments show that using them in conjunction with CRT computer screens will alleviate headaches and eyestrain.
COPYRIGHT 1988 Point Foundation
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