Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)[1] is a non-electric type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when a flame fed by oxygen and hydrogen is directed at a cylinder of quicklime (calcium oxide),[2] due to a combination of incandescence and candoluminescence. Although it has long since been replaced by electric lighting, the term has nonetheless survived, as someone in the public eye is still said to be "in the limelight". The actual lamps are called "limes", a term which has been transferred to electrical equivalents.
- ^ James R. Smith (2004). San Francisco's Lost Landmarks, Quill Driver Books.
- ^ "Chemical of the Week – Lime". scifun.chem.wisc.edu. Archived from the original on 17 February 2008. Retrieved 24 December 2017.