"Jay Monroe, an engineer whose wife’s discontent over the strong light he needed for bedtime reading provoked him to invent a high-intensity, low-voltage mini lamp whose use spread to desks, jewelers’ worktables, limousines and far beyond, died on June 12 at his home in Sands Point, N.Y. He was 80.
His wife, Barbara, said he shot himself after he and his doctor had discussed the possibility that he had cancer.
Mr. Monroe created the Tensor lamp, then manufactured and sold it. The small, skinny lamp focused a narrow cone of high-intensity white light, making shapes, colors and objects appear sharper to the eye. Its first users were professionals like doctors and dentists, then older people and others with weak vision. It soon became an American staple, a lamp that students took to college, couples installed on each side of the bed and stamp collectors adored."-New York Times
The Tensor light even showed up as part of the excuse for the 18 minute gap in the Watergate tapes.
"Most notoriously, in 1973, White House officials attributed the deletion of part of a critical 18-minute tape recording during the Watergate scandal on a combination of hums from the electric typewriter and the Tensor lamp of Rose Mary Woods, President Richard M. Nixon’s secretary. Mr. Monroe, whose engineering sophistication extended to complicated weapons systems, doubted that claim, his wife said."
Well Monroe's innovative Tensor light shines on at the BCP desk. Thanks to my fitting of an LED array as a replacement bulb it does so more efficiently than at any time in it's life. It now uses less than 1 watt instead of the previous 14 watts with an incandescent bulb.
More BCP energy saving projects are coming. Keep checking into BCP for the latest energy improvements.
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