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<\/p>\nMarch 1, 2007
\nColumn 287
\nHey Dummy! We\u2019re Talkin\u2019 about a Darts Light!<\/b><\/p>\n
I realize this may be a bit incircumspect but, what the hell \u2013 this is frickin\u2019 Dartoid\u2019s World, so I\u2019m gonna just put it out there.<\/p>\n
Had Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan been Jewish and Austin, Texas\u2019 inventor Scott Harrison been alive 500 years ago, under the circumstances, a circumcised (OUCH!) Magellan might have circumnavigated the globe with a Circumluminator on board, enabling the crew to throw some 501 before they were attacked and killed by a horde of whacked-out Filipinos with spears.<\/p>\n
Okay, that\u2019s stupid. I guess I just have a circumlocution problem.<\/p>\n
What I am trying to express here, albeit in a terribly longwinded and roundabout way (that, for you dummies, is the definition of \u201ccircumlocution\u201d) is: well\u2026 READ THE DAMN TITLE!<\/p>\n
YES, we\u2019re talkin\u2019 about a dartboard light but we\u2019re not talking about just any light. We\u2019re talkin\u2019 about a spectacular invention that is certain to someday be as widely used as Julie Mayfield was back at Flint, Central High School in 1969.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called the Circumluminator because, unlike traditional dartboard lights that don\u2019t work worth crap, this light surrounds the board like a giant Krispy Kreme doughnut and illuminates the board perfectly sans even the hint of a shadow or glare. It\u2019s a marvelous thing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Others have written about it, all in the most approving of terms. England\u2019s Doctor of Darts, Patrick Chaplin, called it the \u201cbee\u2019s knees\u201d (whatever the hell that means). Former world champion, Bob Anderson, pronounced it \u201csweeter than my golf swing.\u201d Tim Cronian of Crows Darts down in Alabama said it was \u201cas fine a crawdad pie.\u201d Erik McVey of SEWA Darts (who introduced me to the light) was the most complimentary of all, \u201cAin\u2019t it a beautiful thing?\u201d he exclaimed as we entered his darts room, where two of the lights frame boards on the wall. \u201cI\u2019m tellin\u2019 you Dartoid, the light is almost as wonderful as all the kind and loving people who visit my darts forum every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seriously, if you want to know more about what these guys think, go to: http:\/\/www.patrickchaplin.com\/Circumluminator.htm<\/a> Or you can just blow them all off and keep reading.<\/p>\n Actually, the Circumluminator isn\u2019t entirely new. Its inventor, the aforementioned Scott Harrison of Austin, a retired VISA executive, patented the light in 2003. As Harrison explains it, \u201cI retired a bit early in 2000 with IRA assets that should have provided substantial lifetime income without any need to spend capital. The economic collapse following the presidential election that year, exacerbated by the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 cost me about 60% of my assets and forced me to spend capital to live.\u201d<\/p>\n Harrison wrestled for a time with what to do \u2013 go back to work or do something on his own. At about the same time, he fell in with a group of darts players who hung out at an Austin tavern called the Waterloo Brewing Company, owned by Billy Forrester. Said Harrison, \u201cI think Samuel Johnson had people like Billy in mind when he wrote \u2018There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.\u2019\u201d (Since closing the Waterloo a few years ago, Forrester has created another popular Austin tavern, a meeting place for beer, talk, darts, pool and games called “Billy’s On Burnet” at 2105 Hancock \u2013 at the intersection of Burnet.)<\/p>\n So when he should have been working or at least looking for work Harrison got hooked on darts instead and started dipping into his savings. Darts has that effect on people. It makes them smart. Harrison hung out at the Waterloo and, when it closed, headed with his new found friends to become one of the regulars at the oche at Michael Parker\u2019s Opal Divines Freehouse (700 West Sixth Street).<\/p>\n Then one night, kind of like Martin Luther King, Harrison had a dream. Really, he did.<\/p>\n One of the things he had noticed as he got more and more involved in the game was that lighting was often an issue. The lights wiggled, cast shadows and glare. Sometimes they burned out in the middle of a game or, worse, just plain fell off.<\/p>\n One night in early 2003, Harrison popped awake in the middle of the night. \u201cI woke up with the idea that I could make a light for dartboards that eliminates shadows. Within a month, I had tested the idea well enough that I was pretty sure I could do it. By mid summer I had a prototype that worked pretty well but was expensive to make and ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n By fall there was no turning back. Harrison was set to address his economic future by forming his own company to develop and market the Circumluminator. In November 2003, he founded Nuvolux Incorporated and began to introduce his invention \u2013 \u201ca lamp designed for symmetrical, shadow-free, glare-free lighting of a dartboard by encircling the board with light\u201d \u2013 to a global market.<\/p>\n Truth be known, I\u2019m not much into darts products. A dart is a dart in my opinion. After passing through the beginner\u2019s excitement phase years ago, I had a set custom made by Montreal\u2019s Jeff Pickup and have thrown the same set ever since. I\u2019ll never trade them for something newfangled. In nearly 300 columns relating to the sport, never before have I written about a product. The thing is, never before have I seen anything that impressed me \u2013 immediately \u2013 as much as the Circumluminator.<\/p>\n I first saw it about a month ago surrounding a couple of boards at Erik McVey\u2019s house in Pasco, Washington. The next night I played on a Circumluminator-lit board at John \u201cJester\u201d Prescott\u2019s home, also in Pasco. From that weekend on I couldn\u2019t get the thing out of my mind. Not only does it accomplish what it claims by eliminating lighting issues as factors in the sport, it is a work of art.<\/p>\n So I contacted Harrison, began an e-mail \u201cconversation,\u201d and eventually arranged to visit with him at his \u201cfactory\u201d (currently his garage) in Austin during the weekend of the Capital City Darts Association\u2019s (CCDA) annual Capital City Classic. I threw in tournament too but things didn\u2019t go too well. My first partner, local shot Keith Denson, and I lost in the top sixteen round of the blind draw on Friday night. My second partner, Houston\u2019s Jeff \u201cHalfcat\u201d Kratz, and I went down in flames after drawing Daryl Montgomery and Rick Stevenson in the first round of 501 on Saturday. I was set to throw with Houston\u2019s Donny Joe on Sunday but thought it to Joe\u2019s advantage that I beat a fast path out of town.<\/p>\n What I learned from Harrison is more impressive than the light itself. He constructs the Circumluminators himself, by hand. While some of the components are manufactured in Fucheng, China (the name of the city is spelled correctly there; I\u2019m not trying to sneak in a bad, bad word), the nitty-gritty assembly process is a labor of love \u2013 and necessary finance-wise. Until Nuvolux is profitable (it may be by the time you read these words), from early morning until late at night Harrison, with his dog Henrietta at his side, is a one-man operation. To bring on staff at this juncture would drive up the cost of an already expensive product and likely depress sales.<\/p>\n The Circumluminator currently sells for around $200, not that it\u2019s not worth every penny. Even at this price Harrison is selling the Circumluminator at the rate of about one every third day. And he\u2019s selling them all over the world. This is particularly revealing because it costs as much again to ship the light to many countries as it does to buy it.<\/p>\n There\u2019s light at the end of this light cost issue however!<\/p>\n Nuvolux is not some fly-by-night operation. There\u2019s a business plan and the patent is solid. Says Harrison, \u201cUntil 2023, anyone who makes a dartboard light that encircles the board, regardless of size or type of lamp, will be treading on the toes of my patent. The inspiration for this came from Apple’s successful defense of its claim to the \u2018look and feel of the Macintosh system\u2019 at about the time my patent application was filed.\u201d A patent from the European Patent Office is pending. Once the company moves into the black the plan is for production and distribution to be China-based. This will likely cut the price by more than half.<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve said, the light it a thing of beauty. To see one on a wall in someone\u2019s house is an eye-popper. To see a row of them casing soft light on dartboards along the wall of a bar is impressive. But to see more than thirty of them surrounding every board at a tournament, as was the case at the Capital City Classic, and to hear nothing but compliments, is a sight to behold \u2013 and a hell of a positive indicator as to the future of the Circumluminator. Without a doubt Harrison\u2019s invention has unique and broad worldwide appeal \u2013 to the individual darter for home use to the tavern owners to darts leagues and tournament directors.<\/p>\n The other thing that Harrison has going for him is a flair for marketing. The Circumluminator seems to sell itself \u2013 its mere presence as well as its functionality is so overwhelming that when someone sees one they just have to have it.<\/p>\n Naturally, part of Harrison\u2019s plan is to get the lights to places where new people can try them out. For example, if you make it to Stacy Bromberg\u2019s annual Score for Charity fundraiser for the Make-a-Wish Foundation (July 3 at CD\u2019s Lounge in Las Vegas) there will be a Circumluminator there. I plan to teach Erik McVey a darting lesson in a challenge match after which John Part claims he\u2019s going to stick me to the bulls-eye with one of his girlie-boy signature darts. You must get to this fundraiser to see all this, help Make-a-Wish, and check out the Circumluminator.<\/p>\n I\u2019d tell you all about how the Circumluminator is made \u2013 about the durability of the special plastic, the perfect intensity of the light it casts on the board, how you can have it personalized with your name or a logo or anything you want, how easily it installs \u2013 but all this, technically, is proprietary information. Only Harrison (and a handful of seven-year-old Chinese kids at the Fucheng factory) know the details.<\/p>\n My advice: Don\u2019t pass this product by. It\u2019s a one-of-a-kind frickin\u2019 beautiful thing that your wife will probably let you hang on the bedroom wall.<\/p>\n
\nfor Chaplin\u2019s, http:\/\/www.bobanderson180.co.uk\/links.htm <\/a>
\nfor Anderson\u2019s, http:\/\/www.crowsdarts.com\/reviews\/circumluminator.html <\/a>
\nfor Cronian\u2019s, and http:\/\/www.sewa-darts.com\/<\/a>
\nfor McVey\u2019s (but you’ll have to register to read the last one).<\/p>\n