Talk:Limelight
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Untitled
[edit]The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest use of "limelight" as the early 19th century, not the Middle Ages, and doesn't list any meaning having to do with lime in mass graves. Unless somebody has a source for the latter meaning, I'll delete it in a week or so. —JerryFriedman 14:48, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Greenlight
[edit]Is using greenlight and limelight synomously (sp?) incorrect? That Jason 04:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
- It seems that way to me. Greenlight - meaning to give the go-ahead - doesn't seem to have any application to the idea of being the center of attention (in the sense that limelight is used). Limelight wasn't so-called because it had any resemblance to the color of the citrus fruit. - Tenmiles 04:00, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
Lime or Limestone
[edit]Does limelight use calcium oxide (lime) or calcium carbonate (limestone)? The text says calcium carbonate, but the diagram shows calcium oxide being used.
I don't know about this myth, but it could have been used as lighting up the limestone. Sounds crazy, but I only speak of what I have heard from Dr. Oz's show. P.S. Is it true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.7.81.164 (talk) 02:58, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
It cannot be limestone. Limestone is calcium carbonate which would be decomposed by the heat of an oxy-hydrogen flame into quicklime, CaO, when carbon dioxide is driven off. Limestone is the raw material for the production of quicklime. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PEBill (talk • contribs) 04:19, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
The Danger of Limelight
[edit]I once went to a magic lantern show where the presenter stressed the dangerously flammable nature of limelight. If independent conformation can be found this should be mentioned in the article.--Teletran (talk) 18:51, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
- Well, it does involve a very hot flame.... — Omegatron 00:05, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
- Oxygen / hydrogen torches aren't much lower temp than oxyacetylene, and the block of lime is going to be at that temperature and stay way up there for a while as well. It's likely many materials would ignite when if they came in contact with the CaO long after it quit glowing... I can see accidents being caused that way on a fairly regular basis by people who weren't familiar with it doing things like throwing their coat over the whole assembly (it's not glowing or anything, and the fire is turned off). House fires used to start kinda often when people threw clothes over incandescent lamps either to dry them more quickly than the clothesline or just because they were sloppy drunk or whatever. I think it was mainly synthetic fabrics prone to this, but that was way before my time. Incandescent bulbs were the only thing readily available for the first half of my life and I remember being warned not to put anything on top of lampshades by my mom (who loved lamps more than Brick Tamland and had approximately 10 of them per room) when I was growing up, and seeing it in at least one fire safety video we were shown in elementary school when the fire department came by to give some presentations. A Shortfall Of Gravitas (talk) 11:10, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
Gas source
[edit]Where did the Victorians get the hydrogen and oxygen to operate magic lanterns and follow spots from? How was it stored and transported? 193.109.254.26 (talk) 15:41, 28 February 2013 (UTC) A very good question - who made the lime blocks, the lamps, the oxygen and hydrogen, and supplied and maintained them - there must have been a whole industry and supply chain all knowledge of which has been lost, and which apparently has no documentation; this is a subject ripe for in depth research.86.187.167.83 (talk) 23:47, 6 February 2018 (UTC)
- Who says they used hydrogen and oxygen?? Did they not just use the same natural gas that that used for regular gas lighting at the time? Either way, hydrogen and oxygen had been isolated in their pure forms long before the Victorian era... Firejuggler86 (talk) 07:45, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
Nice page
[edit]To the point - well done. I might say it was quite illuminating. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.179.42.184 (talk) 09:13, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
References
[edit]I suppose if one were to go through WIkipedia's articles they would find almost as many expired links as valid ones, but at least for this article, as of the date of this comment, I have found that some of the references are no longer available. Case in point the University of Leeds reference. If anyone is actively working on this page (I rather doubt it) please have a look. --APDEF (talk) 12:04, 26 January 2020 (UTC)