limelight

Also known as Drummond light, calcium light

thumb|upright=1.35|Diagram of a limelight burner

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Image: Homemade Limelight.JPG

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Commons category: Limelight

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Contents

History
Discovery and invention
Early use in Europe
Early use in the United States
Early use in Australia
See also
References
Bibliography
External links

thumb|upright=1.35|Diagram of a limelight burner

Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light) is a non-electric type of stage lighting that was once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when a flame fed by oxygen and hydrogen is directed at a cylinder of quicklime (calcium oxide), due to a combination of incandescence and candoluminescence. Although it has long since been replaced by electric lighting, the term has nonetheless survived, as someone in the public eye is still said to be "in the limelight". The actual lamps are called "limes", a term which has been transferred to electrical equivalents.