There are a few iconic types of lighting fixtures lying around most home.

Most of which go unnoticed as being unique or ground breaking. Take the average lamp for example, although based on earlier designs, the use of incandescent bulbs was revolutionary. The electric light bulb changed the world. Just try and imagine what a house would look like without iconic lighting fixtures. What a pool table look like without its iconic light? What would the dinning room look like without a chandelier? What would a desk look like without a anglepoise lamp? Wait a minute. At this point, most readers should be asking themselves, what's an anglepoise lamp? Truth be told, before writing this article, the writer had no idea either. Well, the writer knew what one was, but had never heard the name before. A anglepoise lamp is a subset of balanced-arm lamps. Isn't that so much more clear? Balanced-arm lamps are the iconic lamps with the adjustable arms that used gravity to stand up straight. In American culture, these lamps are synonymous with architects and the desks of children. Unless of course, someone came across an expensive looking anglepoise and kept it to adulthood. Jest aside, the balanced-arm lamp is a marvel of modern engineering. Seriously. Although the principals which permit their use are relatively simple, only manufacturing techniques developed in the past seventy years allow then to produced on a wide scale. The anglepoise lamp is the proper name for a lamp that was developed by George Carwardine in 1933. Mr. Carwardine was originally a British car designer. His frustrations with the limited position of the lamps available to him at the time led to him to conceive of a lamp which mimicked the human arm. Hence the name balanced-arm lamp. The lamp was positioned so that its center of gravity allowed it to stand, but at the same illuminated an area well away from its base. Carwardine named his invention the anglepoise. The name comes from the idea that the lamp can posture or poise itself at different angles. Since then, the same technique has been replicated and even improved upon. Modern balanced-arm lamps make use of numerous joints, and through the use of springs can balance at greater variety of angles. Balanced arm lamps are sill made by a wide variety of manufacturers, and are no longer rest in the realm of just children and architects. Holtkotter as a series of lamps specially designed for reading, for use on table and general use throughout the home.