Renowned lighting designer Howard Brandston, a retired Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute adjunct professor associated with RPI's Lighting Research Center, is leading a crusade to save the incandescent light bulb.

From his farmhouse in the Columbia County hamlet of Hollowville, Brandston is almost singlehandedly trying to preserve Thomas Edison's iconic invention so it is not relegated to the dustbin of history.

Brandston calls it a misguided energy conservation effort by the federal government to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with compact fluorescent lamps, known as CFLs.

He said CFLs are far more expensive, their energy savings is insignificant and they pose potential health and environmental problems because they contain mercury, a toxic heavy metal.

"The New York Times called me the Paul Revere of this cause, but I still feel like Don Quixote," Brandston said. He has launched a Save the Bulb campaign on his website, testified against CFLs before the U.S. Energy Committee last year and encourages consumers to join the fight by writing letters to members of Congress and hoarding incandescent light bulbs.

"Edison created a time-tested light bulb that is still the best option for its price," Brandston said. "Consumer choice is an all-American right. The government has created a light bulb cartel, has crammed the CFL down our throats and the citizens have no antitrust protection."

Ever the professor, Brandston offered an experiment for a reporter and photographer set up in his garage that involved diagnostic testing equipment, including a spectrometer hooked up to a laptop computer. The tests confirmed that the light spectrum of the incandescent light bulb was full and complete and resembled natural daylight. By comparison, the thin, gap-filled light spectrum of the CFL did not come close to natural daylight.

"That's a 50-cent bulb, an Edison bulb, and it's beautiful," Brandston said of the incandescent. "Now, look at the CFL. It costs nearly 10 times as much and it's incomplete, dull and flat."