Limelight
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- For other uses, see Limelight (disambiguation).
Limelight is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. Although it has long since been replaced by electric lighting, someone in the public eye is still said to be "in the limelight". An intense illumination is created when a hydrogen/oxygen flame is directed at a cylinder of lime, which can be raised to white heat without melting. The light is produced by a combination of incandescence and thermoluminescence.
The effect was discovered in the 1820s by Goldsworthy Gurney (1793-1875), who invented and patented the "oxy-hydrogen blowpipe". In 1825 a Scottish engineer, Thomas Drummond (1797-1840), saw a demonstration of the effect by Michael Faraday, and realised that the light would be useful for surveying. Drummond built a working version in 1826, and the light is sometimes known as the Drummond Light after him.
Limelight was first used in public in the Covent Garden Theatre in London in 1837, but enjoyed widespread use in theatres around the world in the 1860s and 1870s. Limelights were employed in the same manner as modern followspots, to highlight solo performers. To this day, theatre followspots are referred to as limes. Limelight was quickly replaced by electric arc lighting in the late 19th century.