“Because I know less than you do about electricity and electric lighting, I’ve always been guiltily confused about the three or four 1878 experiments in football floodlighting. These took place, as you’ll recall, in London, Sheffield and Edinburgh. Two aspects of the experiments had me puzzled. On the one hand, they took place just before the controversial Swan-Edison patents for the incandescent light bulb. As I was unaware of any pre-incandescent light bulb means to effect electric lighting, I had to imagine that pre-patent bulbs were being used. But how would any number of nineteenth century light bulbs provide sufficient illumination for a game being played on a 100yd pitch?” (James Hamilton)