ARTIFICIAL LIGHT

Southland Times, Issue 22074, 22 July 1933, Page 11

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT

PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT.

(Contributed.)

Although our ancestors had to be content with the light of a wick floating in oil, or smoky torches, or rushlights as . the means of illumination in their baronial halls, the smallest farm in Southland can now switch on the electric light with the minimum amount of smoke or trouble. The flint, steel and charred-rag as tinder, represented in the olden times our box of “safety matches” invented barely eighty years ago. Consequently the progressive development of artificial light can mark the stages of civilization and of science.

When the mediaeval scullion spilt the dripping on the rush-covered floor, it was discovered that, saturated with grease, the rush burned more slowly and gave more light. Then holders were made for rush lights, but they have been so long obsolete that original holders are very rare, except in museums. These rushlights and holders have been revived by the Toe H. Association as a suggestive emblem of their order.

The first improvement on the rushlight was a twisted cotton wick dipped into hot tallow until thick enough to form a candle, and although the charred end of the wicks constantly required “snuffing,” duly performed by footmen clad in elaborate plush livery, the “farthing dip” continued in use till the eighteenth century; and ornate specimens of the “snuffers” may occasionally be discovered by collectors. The tallow candle, or “dip,” continued in general use long after wax candles were restricted to the wealthy on account of the cost.

In the thirteenth century France had founded guilds to manage the two branches of the industry, and these are now represented in London by the two distinct livery companies—the Wax-

chandlers and the Tallowchandlers. A scientific method of improving the illuminating power of candles was the invention of crystal-chandeliers, formed with prisms of cut glass which were able to reflect rays of light in all directions, to separate the rays into prismatic colours, and to multiply the candle-light just as mirrors can add to the sunlight and direct the rays into dark corners. These crystal-chandel-iers, being expensive, were restricted to palaces and churches, but when installed, the light of each candle was multiplied and diffused without additional expense. This invention rapidly gained favour, because the unsteady flame of a candle caused the reflected rays to scintillate like stars on a clear, frosty night, showing also prismatic colours such as are seen more brilliantly in a diamond. These are still used in the state-rooms of palaces as the scintillating rays suggest animation; and when used in Italian churches, on festival days, they serve to vivify the symbolism of Light. In 1779 illuminating gas was discovered by W. Murdoch, and forty years later it was improved by J. B. Neilson of Glasgow. But gas was slow in supplanting oil or candles, as the illumination was poor, even though assisted by crystal-gasaliers, into which many of the former chandeliers had been converted, because the flickering gasflame produced the same scintillating rays as the unsteady candle flame. Better gas-light became possible when incandescent mantles were invented by Welsbach and others. Gas, however, serves so many other domestic purposes besides illumination, that it may long remain popular.

The arc-lamp was the next stage of improved illumination, introduced about 1870. People are still living who can remember the uncertain light yielded by electric-carbons, and the ghastly effect of that light on hands and features. Finally the electric filament in a bulb-lamp forms the latest achievement of science and civilization. Electricity as a medium of illumination has supplanted oil, tallow, wax, or gas, together with the appliances formerly rendered essential, but now only retained as objects of curiosity or of ornament. Even the crystal-gas-aliers have lost popularity because the scintillating rays produced by candles or gas-jets become glittering perhaps, but not scintillating. Two ideas are suggested by the different effects; one is that chandeliers imitate Nature’s twinkling stars which adorn the darkness; and the other aims to be scientific sunlight, able to efface darkness, with the consequent need of means to soften the glare and diffuse the light. A very interesting branch of artificial light might be traced from the primitive beacon, to the latest form of lighthouse illumination, the one merely a bonfire to guide shipping, and the other forming the highest illustration of abstruse optics. But the most interesting use of artificial light in the form of Rontgen rays, is the ability to penetrate solid substance, such as the human body, and thereby to reveal the presence of foreign material, or of malignant disease.

Summarized briefly, the meagre illumination in the Middle Ages, which barely reached across the hall, rendered the cheery blaze of the wood fire the centre of warmth and light. The fireplace developed into the ingle-nook, or a room within a room, while elaborately sculptured armorial bearings often surmounted the opening. Improved lighting diminished the importance of the fireside and culminated in the intense beams of an electric search-light reaching seawards or skywards, and capable of disclosing the smallest distant objects. Our ancestors would regard the Rontgen rays as black magic though discovered by the laborious and perilous researches of science.