I purchased two of these. One for my husband's nightstand and one for my mine. As soon as I had unpacked them and put them on the nightstands, he said, gee, it would be really cool if you could just touch them and they would turn on. So, I touched the base and the light turned on! Both of us are so excited at the look of them, as it fits our mid-century style very much. The only difficulty I would say is that the base does get dusty. It could just be because of our house, but regardless, we love the look and style of these.