고등학교 공통영어2 (YBM 박준언) 연계 글

In 2002, Brazil was going through an energy crisis that caused blackouts. It was during this difficult period that a mechanic named Alfredo Moser came up with a remarkably simple idea. He found a way to light his house during the day without any electricity. His device was made mainly from a plastic bottle, water, and a little bleach. If there had been no blackouts that year, Moser might never have thought of using a bottle in this way.

To make the lamp, Moser filled the bottle with water and bleach and pushed it into a hole in his roof. He then sealed the narrow gap around the bottle. Part of the bottle sticks out above the roof, while the rest hangs down below the ceiling. It is the water inside the bottle that turns this ordinary object into a lamp. Sunlight entering the top of the bottle bends as it passes through the water and scatters in many directions. If Moser had simply cut an open hole, the sunlight would have passed straight through and lit only one spot in the room. The bleach matters as well, because it keeps the water clear. If he had used plain water, tiny living things called algae might have turned the water green.

Depending on how strong the sunshine is, one bottle gives about as much light as a 40- to 60-watt bulb. The water and bleach need to be changed only about once every five years. However, the lamp works only while the sun is up, and it gives far less light on cloudy days. Families therefore still need another source of light at night. Even so, the bottles have lowered the electricity bills of many households.

Moser's idea did not stay in Brazil. Several years later, a group in the Philippines began installing bottle lamps in homes that received little daylight. By 2014, more than 100,000 homes in the Philippines had them. The lamps had also appeared in India and many other countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. It is because the lamp is cheap and easy to make that the idea has spread so widely. A used plastic bottle has brought daylight into many thousands of dark homes.