Sizes and types of bulbs: All my lamps will take 100 watt bulbs but if you want lots of light for tasks or reading, try PARs or spots All the lamps have swivels at the sockets and you can aim the light where you need it, getting more usable light with fewer watts. If you like the clear glass shades you will probably want to use reflector bulbs to avoid glare. For general area lighting, try a regular 100 watt bulb with one of the white shades to diffuse the light. For brain surgery, try a 50 watt halogen spot. All my lamps have two-level dimmers to cut the intensity of those bright bulbs in half. Most compact flourescents cannot be used with dimmers.

Shades: If the shade must be in front of you as you work, as with table lamps or desk lamps, choose a more opaque shade so the light is on your work-surface, not in your eyes. Everybody likes glass shades but cloth and paper shades don't break when you bang them with your head. If you don't like the ones I sell it's easy to install one you prefer. Some of the brown bakelite sockets have fine threads at the bottom for the threaded American "UNO" shades and some have coarser threads and threaded rings to hold the unthreaded European "Nord" shades. They are not interchangable - give me a call if you're unsure which you have. If your lamp has a glass shade and you want to change it to fabric or paper, get a "washer-top" shade to go between the steel top of the socket and the brass swivel in place of the brass, three-screw glass-shade-holder. Tighten it before you wire the socket so you don't have to twist the wire when you tighten the socket. HERE is a page showing how to wire a washer-top shade. Follow polarized wiring guidelines below! Here is a page showing my currently available shades.

Wall mounting: I supply the lamps with screws and the strongest, easiest-to-install hollow-wall fasteners I can find. Hold the lamp base against the wall as level as you can so the lamp doesn't later tend to swing to one side. Mark the holes with pencil or a nail. Drill 1/2" holes for the butterfly fasteners. With the bolts installed through the lamp and the end of the bolts projecting about 1/4" through the toggle fasteners, push the fasteners through the holes in the wall until the butterfly fasteners snap open and then tighten the bolts. The holes in the

Cords: The lamps come with 10 foot ivory, brown, white or gold cords. The easiest way to camouflage a vinyl cord on a painted wall is to paint the cord the same color, pull it taught and pin it to the baseboard. If your lamp is designed to use a cord switch, and you are installing it, cut the smooth side of the cord. Click here for information on installing the switch yourself.

Safety: When installing a bulb, screw it into the socket just until it lights. If you have to tighten it to make it light, unplug the lamp and bend the socket's center tang out just a bit. If unscrewing an overtightened bulb loosens the socket itself, loosen the three shade-holder screws and lower the shade so you can hold the edge of the porcelain socket (after it cools!) to keep it from turning. Then tighten the socket before screwing in the bulb. All my lamps are polarized so that only the center contact of the socket can be "hot", never the threaded aluminum shell of the socket. The system is simple and must be observed any time you wire or rewire the socket, switch or plug of any lamp. The narrow slot in your wall receptacles are "hot" and the wide slots are grounded, along with the round hole. The narrow tang on the plug should connect to the smooth side of the cord which connects to the gold-colored screw on the socket. This smooth side is the one you cut if you need to install a cord switch. Conversely, the wide tang connects to the ribbed (look closely) side of the cord to the silver screw on the socket, Please call me at (860) 974-2032 or email me at glsweetnam@mindspring.com if you have any questions.

Technique: Straight tapers of red oak are slotted on the table saw, steamed to 200 Deg. F. in a steam-box, bent on a compression jig, dried and glued together with the slots facing inward to form a concealed wireway. Genius, eh? Don't try this one at home, folks, it's cheaper to buy them from me.