MIT's iconic Great Dome gets a new shine
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
Tiny red lights know as LEDs revolutionized the calculator in the 1960s and '70s, creating a boxy digital display of numbers that became a hallmark of the early hand-held adding machines.
In a fitting coincidence that brings mathematics full circle, the same type of tiny lights have begun illuminating the Great Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a white, energy-efficient glow.
The 1,000-watt lights that once shined on the 150-feet-high dome over Barker Engineering Library on the Charles River stopped working properly some 30 years ago and often cast the iconic building in a blue or pink hue, said Ronald J. Adams, a senior electrical engineer at the school. Lights were mounted on the roofs of nearby buildings and, when in operation, sucked 4,500 watts of electricity.
On Saturday, officials threw the switch on a new 12-fixture light scheme that includes two strips of white LEDs -- the modern version of the red blips that once dominated calculator displays. The strips of hundreds of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are wrapped around the bottom of the dome and at the base of the limestone facade.
The LEDs, which each draw one-quarter of a watt of power, are complemented by other high-precision, narrowly focused metal halide lights. The new system is brighter than the old and uses two-thirds as much electricity as the previous system, requiring 3,200 watts of power, which is roughly equivalent to the energy needed to run two hair dryers, Adams said.
To offset that power use, the school plans to use a $100,000 grant to install a 50-foot-by-50-foot array of solar panels on the roof of another nearby building, which will create 10 times more power than the lights use. For Adams, an MIT graduate, the dome is a renewed source of pride.
"It's pretty dramatic from the river," he said today in a telephone interview. "It's definitely lighting up the iconic structure that everybody knows symbolizes MIT in a dramatic way."
Contact Andrew Ryan at
aryan@globe.com
Posted by the Boston Globe City & Region Desk at 06:35 PM
