The phenomenon of magnetic and electric lighting was studied by ancient Chinese, Greek and Roman scientists.

In 1750, Benjamin Franklin, an American writer, tried to collect electrical charges in a kite during a thunderstorm. An Italian scientist and Professor of the University of Pavia made a big step forwards with the discovery of the continuous electric current in 1800 which was named after him, called the Volta Pile. The announcement stunned the scientific world and it was from this basic concept that electric light was later developed.

There were several areas of investigation into the electric light, namely, the carbon arc, the incandescent filament bulb, gaseous discharge lights and chemical light.The carbon arc light was the earliest form of electric illumination.

In 1809 the English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy demonstrated his carbon arc lamp at The Royal Institute in London. His invention known as the electric arc light was not put to widespread use until the 1850s.

The sheer brightness of the light and the need for low voltage electricity prohibited its use in confined space unless the illumination was muted by blinds. It was used for street lighting and for lighthouses, but had largely been discontinued by WW I and replaced by other forms of electricity. However, carbon arc lighting was continued to be used in military applications like search lights on aircraft.

The Incandescent Bulb
The development of the incandescent bulb continued in parallel with that of the are light. In 1865, Hermann Sprengel invented a mercury vacuum pump which allowed a sufficiently high vacuum to be obtained in the bulb for further experiments on the filament to take place. The American, Thomas Edison (1847-1931) – who invented the telegraph — and the Englishman, Joseph Swan (1825-1914) are both credited with having discovered the incandescent filament bulb.

In 1878 Swan heated the filament while evacuating the bulb of its gases, so prolonging its life while Edison achieved 45 hours of illumination from his bulb in 1879. Refinements soon followed: Edison devised the screw-in brass cap and Swan the bayonet fitting. Both were marketing bulbs by the 1880s. A partnership was formed between Swan and Edison, creating the Edison & Swan United Company which later became Ediswan.

In 1881 The Engineer claimed that the first home to be completely lit by electricity was the house of Lord Kelvin, a close friend of Swan. His house in Glasgow had been lit by 106 gas lights which were converted to electric lights powered by a dynamo, driven by a gas engine.

In the same year, Sir William Armstrong, engineer and armament manufacturer, lit 45 electric lamps in his famous picturesque Cragside mansion at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which had been designed by Norman Shaw in the early 1870s. The electricity was generated by a water turbine sited 1500 yards (1.3 km) from his house.

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Did you know that ‘Goal Setting’ is the secret to fulfilling ANY dream or desire you want in life? In many sales training courses goal setting is ignored.

Did you also know that SUPER Successful sales people use ‘Goals’ to attain the knowledge and wealth and sales success they have today?

Some of you reading this right now might agree and some of you might not. That decision is yours to make.

The reason people find it too hard to achieve their goals is simple because they’ve set their Long-Term goals before setting Short-Term ones, or they just didn’t plan their goals out carefully.

Goal setting strategies are VERY important, especially for those who want to achieve Long-Term goals.

Well, your in luck because I’m going to share five ‘Goal Setting’ techniques to help you realize your TRUE goals today.

Your only requirement is to keep an open mind.

So, with that said, lets go to Technique #1.

Technique #1. Start with Short-Term goals.

Sometimes, people start with short-term goals unconsciously.

Why unconsciously?

Some of them may have considered the goals to be long-term at the time they planned them; and after achieving a goal, they realize that they are in fact, looking forward to a longer one.

Some are contented with their short-term goals, but after a while will realize that they also need to attain long-term ones.

Short-term goals seem to be our starting point for our Long Term ones.

They also motivate the person to plan for longer goals, which will usually take some time before achieving them in full.

Technique #2. Make sure you really want the goal.

By this, you have to ask yourself: “Do I really want this goal and will this goal give me a better life?”

Answering this ONE question will give you more passion and motivation to achieve your goal.

Some people often recall their past to find out Why and How they came up with such goal.

Technique #3. Speak up.

What I mean by this is you shouldn’t keep your goals to yourself only. By sharing your goals with other people it’ll help you get the support you may need in order to fulfill them.

The problem that usually occurs though is some people are just too shy to tell others about their goals for reasons like they are afraid they cannot achieve them in the end, or they lack the courage to speak their minds.

This is not a good habit to get into because when the time comes that you really need their support, you will have a difficult time getting it.

You’ll then be left to achieve your goals all by yourself.

Don’t make this mistake.

Technique #4. Write down your goals.

This strategy is critical and more advisable for those who have a long list of goals.

After writing them down in as much detail, it is advisable that you review them on a daily to weekly basis because this will encourage and motivate you to achieving them, plus, this will also keep that vision of your goal alive.

Technique #5. Stay on track and never give up.

Reviewing notes will help open your mind to see if you are on the right track. While on track, you may have to face challenges that might change your personality.

A person who is overconfident might suddenly feel depressed after finding out that he is going the wrong way in achieving his goal.

Thus this might lead to abandoning the goal. Never be discouraged. Facing obstacles is a test on how passionate one is to realizing his or her goals.

There you have it. Give those a try and keep a visual picture in your mind everyday of you fulfilling that goal you desire so much.

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Time management is an area of business management often overlooked or ignored. We all know someone in small business who races around like a madman all day, never enough hours in a day, all they do is rush and get worked up – maybe this person is you!

At the end of the day, when the dust settles, what have you achieved? Do you review the day and wonder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would”. If this sounds familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people never seem to rush, they remain composed and unflustered. The difference between them and everybody else is they have mastered time management.

What is time management? It is simply allocating time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can really understand how to time manage our day, we must ask ourselves what are we trying to achieve today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The best way in my opinion to achieve goals is to write them down. You should review these goals from time to time to ensure that they are relevant and achievable but not so achievable that you don’t have to try hard to achieve them otherwise what is the purpose of the goals in the first place?

At the start of each working year you should sit down and think about what you want to achieve this year, it could be that you want to increase your profits by 20%, you may want to move into larger premises, you may want to reduce your debt substantially. At the start of each working week you should write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that need to be done this week, and review them each day to ensure you’re making progress and hopefully mark some of the tasks off the list.

You should keep the list on your desk or in a place where you will be constantly reminded what needs to be done this week. This list should be in order of priority so that the most important tasks at the top of the list get done first. Anything not achieved this week will be carried forward next week on a higher priority, this will ensure it gets done.

The next thing you should be doing is having a daily list of jobs to do. This will help keep you on track each day. Again, this list should be displayed where you can constantly refer to it and mark off the jobs completed. Marking off the jobs will give you a sense of achievement and let you know how you are progressing through the day. Always stick to the list where possible and keep working from high priority to low priority.

I know things can come up through the day that can throw the whole day out, but you must either deal with the crisis and return to your list or if the new task isn’t as important as some of the jobs on the list put it at the bottom of the list and continue doing what you were doing.

Every task you have to do should be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep your day organised and you achieve your daily goals.

Beware starting jobs and not finishing them. This will turn tomorrow into a mess of half finished jobs and will cause “list blowout”. You will end up with a list a mile long and you will give up in despair and revert back to old habits of being in confusion all day and achieving nothing.

Remember each day you achieve your goals and tick off everything on your list, you get a little closer to achieving your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
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You have found a business for sale, you have bought it, so what now? With all the pieces of your new business just about in place, there is a crucial Issue to discuss, You. The most important ingredient in small business is the owner, and the most important ingredient in the owner is their attitude to both the business, and their customers.

Your attitude will to a great degree govern your success in business. Some people when they leave their jobs to start up their own business, unravel and get lazy. This is probably due to the fact they are no longer intimidated by the boss into doing the right thing. Self discipline can be a real problem with some people, they just can’t motivate themselves without some degree of external pressure. This, I believe is the biggest problem you will face.

You should watch for the warning signs, opening late, closing early, having long lunches, never getting jobs finished on time or at all, not returning calls, letting accounting paperwork lag behind, taking days off because you couldn’t be bothered working and so on. It is so easy to slip into bad habits, so be aware.

Try and remain accustomed to at least working the same hours as you were in your employed job and set yourself targets. Targets and goals will impose pressure on you to perform.

The next attitude problem comes from lack of determination.

Some small business owners fall to pieces every time there is problem or a crisis. This style of attitude will also assist you to go out of business very quickly.

You must never give up, for your own sake you must push on because you will strike plenty of problems and go through several serious crisis’s before things settle down, this is common to all new businesses.

The best thing to do is work through the problem in a calm and systematic way. Whilst you may feel at the time “this is the end” and “I’ve had enough”, this is a normal reaction that will pass. It often helps to join business groups and talk to other business owners about common problems. Even a meeting with two or three friends every other week may be enough to get you through the crisis.

You then must solve the problem and keep going. I’m sure attitude and determination has a lot to do with the 90% of businesses that fail. It’s ridiculous to think that a business goes down the drain because the owner had a poor attitude or “had a wobbly”, but it does happen. Make sure you’re not one of them.

The last issue to discuss is your attitude to customers. Keep this in mind, regardless of whether you like the particular person, all customers contribute to your profitability and success so treat them with respect and courtesy. It’s amazing how quickly customers will desert you if they feel you are rude to them. No customers – no money — no business! Always remain courteous, helpful and above all friendly, never allow personal or business problems to raise their heads in front of customers.The future of your business is in your hands.

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