A Serious Blog

FREE Delivery at Serious Readers

2010-04-30T13:16:00.007+01:00

We are extending our offer of FREE DELIVERY plus a mystery gift for ALL orders placed on our website until Monday 10th May.

All lights are delivered by courier, direct to your door. So why not try one of our Floor, Table or Wall Lights, or one of our best of breed Reading Gifts.

Kind regards,

Alex Pratt
Founder

Ps Hope you don't get to caught in poor weather this weekend!

Grandad Light

2009-10-16T10:42:00.001+01:00

My son Elliot is trying his 11+ exams this week so we've been touring the local grammar schools to take a look at where he might go if he is successful. Completely by coincidence, his grandad has been down from Scotland. During our tour of the Royal Grammar School http://www.rgshw.com/ in High Wycombe, we came across what we used to call the Woodwork Dept. but is now called "Home Technology" or some such new fangled name. Anyway, what should we find but some of our Alex Lights attached to the machinery. What was special was that they were of a type that we stopped making over 30 years ago when grandad Len used to make them himself by hand. The picture shows Elliot with his grandad and one of grandad's lights still going strong today. It has done its best to help over 30 years worth of the best and brightest young men in the land drill holes in their practice wooden pencil cases. Their teacher told me it hadn't even needed a bulb change in the decade that he'd been there. A poignant reminder to us all that everything we do in life has an impact on others, even when we can't see the effects that ripple out. Today we don't just have lights in schools, but in space ships, in military vehicles, in hospitals, and next to armchairs up and down the land. In each case, they are making a difference every day to the lives of the individuals who use them, sometimes small and unnoticed and sometimes significant and loved, but in every case an improvement. It's a source of constant pride to our team who specialise in serious lights for serious readers.

No1: Diamond Light

2009-10-12T17:11:00.000+01:00

It never ceases to amaze me just how far our Alex Lights will travel. They've been in Bond movies, to the depths of the deepest oceans on board nuclear subs, and into outer space inside the Space Shuttle. They help to save lives on the high seas on board lifeboats and were recently spotted in the control tower at Baghdad Airport. So, on a tour of the Diamond Light Source facility in Oxfordshire last week, what should I find? Yes, another Alex Light shining forth at the head of the business end of the World's most sophistocated light engine, used to generate the brightest beams known to man. This piece of scientific hardware is used to study the most difficult and smallest particles such as the Swine Flu virus. When you set up a business, you really have no idea what to expect do you? The fact that astronauts, lifeboat crews, and the world's top scientists have come to use what we design and build is a constant source of surprise and pride to our small team. http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home

Macular Degeneration - Serious Readers Newsletter

2009-10-01T11:24:00.019+01:00

Hello again,

Welcome to the Serious Readers newsletter.
Continuing our theme of eye conditions, here is another one that a lot of us suffer from. It affects around 500,000 people in the UK alone and with an ageing population it's increasingly common - it's called Macular Degeneration.

I hope you find it interesting.

Alex Pratt - Founder

Macular Degeneration (MD) is the collective term for over 1,500 conditions which affect central vision by damage to the macula, a small area of the retina at the back of the eye. It is estimated that there are over 500,000 people with macular conditions in the UK. Macular degeneration is the most common form of visual impairment in the UK and throughout the developed world.

The retina is a very thin tissue that lines the back of the eye and contains the light sensing cells that send visual signals to the brain. Sharp, clear central vision is processed by the macula (also sometimes called the fovea) which is a circular patch in the central part of the retina and is about the size of a grain of barley. MD occurs when the layer of the retina responsible for nourishing the macula's light sensitive rod and cone cells, and for carrying away waste products, starts to function less effectively as it ages.

Cells in the macula break down, causing a loss of sight in the central part of the field of vision but leaving the side vision, known as peripheral vision, unaffected. The most popular purpose built light choice for customers with Macular Degeneration is our new High Definition Reading Light. For more details click here www.seriou sreaders.com/high definition. Lower budget equivalents can be found here www.seriousreaders.com/bestsellers.

Presbyopia - Serious Readers Newsletter

2009-09-29T12:05:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the new Serious Readers newsletter.

As you've probably noticed, the nights are starting to draw in now. So I'll be telling you about an eye condition that is much more noticeable diuring darker days. Most people have never heard of it but nearly everyone over the age of 60 is affected by it - it's called Presbyopia.

I hope you find it interesting.

Alex Pratt - Founder

Presbyopia describes the condition where the eye exhibits a progressively diminished ability to focus on near objects with age. Presbyopia's exact mechanisms are not known with certainty, however, the research evidence most strongly supports a loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens, although changes in the lens's curvature from continual growth and loss of power of the ciliary muscles (the muscles that bend and straighten the lens) have also been post
ulated as its cause.

Similar to grey hair and wrinkles, presbyopia is a symptom caused by the natural course of aging; the direct translation of the condition's name is "elder eye". The first symptoms are usually first noticed between the ages of 40-50. The ability to focus on near objects declines throughout life, from 2 inches away in a child to between about 3 and 6 feet away in a 60 year old.

It is widely acknowledged by Opticians that the eyestrain and tiredness caused by Presbyopia can be greatly reduced with the help of a proper built reading light. If you want to see our range of purpose-built Reading Lights then go to www.seriousreaders.com