Byron & Phoebus

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

After looking up "APOCOLOCYNTOSIS", I got to reading it and, uh. . . .

Phoebus

by Micha F. Lindemans
Literally, "the radiant one". In Greek mythology, an epithet of 
Apollo because of his connection with the sun or as 
descendant of the Titaness Phoebe (his grandmother). The 
Romans venerated him as Phoebus Apollo.
The Lamp of Phoebus, the sun.

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/phoebus.html

          Now was come the season when Phoebus had 
                    narrowed the daylight, 
          Shortening his journey, while sleep's dim hours 
                    were left to grow longer; 

http://tinyurl.com/27t7m2

Classical Latin poets also used Phoebus as a byname for the 
sun-god, whence common references in later European poetry 
to Phoebus and his car ("chariot") as a metaphor for the sun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus

Through his years of survival, all these various rescues 
of Byron happen as if by accident. Whenever he can, 
he tries to instruct any bulbs nearby in the evil nature of 
Phoebus, and in the need for solidarity against the cartel. 
He has come to see how Bulb must move beyond its role 
as conveyor of light-energy alone. Phoebus has restricted 
Bulb to this one identity. “But there are other frequencies, 
above and below the visible band. Bulb can give heat. 
Bulb can provide energy for plants to grow, illegal plants, 
inside closets, for example. Bulb can penetrate the sleeping 
eye, and operate amonst the dreams of men.” Some 
bulbs listened attentively - others thought of ways to fink 
to Phoebus. Some of the older anti-Byronists were able 
to fool with their parameters in systematic ways that would 
show up on the ebonite meters under the Swiss mountain: 
there were even a few self-immolations, hoping to draw 
the hit men down.

Any talk of Bulb’s transcendence, of course, was clear 
subversion. Phoebus based everything on bulb efficiency - 
the ratio of the usable power coming out, to the power put 
in. The Grid demanded that this ratio stay as small as 
possible. That way they got to sell more juice. On the other 
hand, low efficiency meant longer burning hours, and that 
cut into bulb sales for Phoebus. In the beginning Phoebus 
tried increasing filament resistance, reducing the hours of 
life on the sly and gradually - till the Grid noticed a fall-off 
in revenues, and started screaming. The two parties by 
and by reached an accord on a compromise bulb-life 
figure that would bring in enough money for both of them, 
and to go fifty-fifty on the costs of the antibulbsnatching 
campaign. Along with a more subtle attack against those 
criminal souls who forswear bulbs entirely and use 
candles. Phoebus’s long-standing arrangement with the 
Meat Cartel was to restrict the amount of tallow in 
circulation by keeping more fat in meat to be sold 
regardless of the cardiac problems that might arise, 
and redirectly most of what was trimmed off into soap 
production. Soap in those days was a booming concern. 
Among the consumers, the Bland Institute had discovered 
deep feelings about shit. Even at that, meat and soap 
were minor interlocks to Phoebus. More important were 
items like tungsten. Another reason why Phoebus couldn’t 
cut down bulb life too far. Too many tungsten filaments 
would eat into available stockpiles of the metal - China 
being the major world source, this also brought in very 
delicate questions of Eastern policy - and disturb the 
arrangement between General Electric and Krupp about 
how much tungsten carbide would be produced, where 
and when and what the prices would be. The guidelines 
settled on were $37-$90 a pound in Germany, $200-
$400 a pound in the U.S. This directly governed the 
production of machine tools, and thus all areas of light 
and heavy industry. When the War came, some people 
thought it unpatriotic of GE to have given Germany an 
edge like that. But nobody with any power. Don’t worry.

http://tinyurl.com/2qhc48

Was Edison's original light bulb really designed to never run out? 

http://tinyurl.com/35mznu

The Mazda Lamp Story...

On December 21, 1909, General Electric first used the name 
Mazda on their lamps. The name was trademarked, and 
assigned the number 77,779 by the United States Patent 
ands Trademark Office. Today, we associate the name with 
automobiles, but when it was first used by GE it was chosen 
to represent the best that the American lighting industry had 
to offer at the time, and was selected due to the fact that 
Persian mythology gave the name Ahura Mazda to the 
god of light. . . .

http://www.oldchristmaslights.com/the_mazda_lamp_story.htm

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Thomas%20Edison

SYNDICATE TO OFFER EDISON CO. 
SHARES; Group Headed by Pynchon & Co. 
Will Put Forward 17,000 Preferred Securities. 
BUSH TERMINAL STOCK SALE Bankers to 
Offer 20,000 Shares -- Foreign Government 
Bond Trust Certificates to Go on Sale.

http://tinyurl.com/33twek

http://www.phoebus.com/