On Fri, 23 Dec 2016 20:15:38 -0600, Mark Lloyd
wrote:

On 12/23/2016 01:49 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:

[snip]


Floor lamps have foot-activated switches. Table lamps have a switch on
the cord or next to the bulb, or the fancy ones you touch the base and
it detects you by capacitance.

I've never seen a lamp with a foot switch. Most lamps (floor or table,
doesn't matter) I see have a switch built into the socket. I do have a
couple of touch lamps, including one that "touches" itself.

[snip]
It's another British thing. Push-on push-off switches on the base of
floor lamps were somewhat common in the British colonies as well (I
ran across a few in Zambia) - If you tripped over the light in the
dark it would turn on - or if you tripped over something in the dark
and banged your head on the lamp. I always found the darn things to be
a royal pain in the tush.