The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1950 THE PROBLEM OF LIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 June 1950, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1950 THE PROBLEM OF LIGHT

IV/TANKIND is continually overcoming two problems, the probiV'l lem of insufficient heating and insufficient light. The early civilisations were established in the warmer zones, and man’s conquest of the earth has been marked by his moving out first into the temperate and then into the more rigorous areas of the earth’s surface. Man has not willingly gone into the colder areas; usually he has been pushed there by his more powerful njighbours. _ It came as a discovery for him to find that he could support himself in these temperate zones by an industrious tilling of the soil; but man had to wait upon an enlargement of his scientific knowledge before he could extend his occupation nearer to the poles. When ninety-day wheat was evolved this achievement added a strip of land a hundred miles wide to the northern border of the Canadian wheat belt. Today the Russians are engaged in an effort to populate the tundra areas, of which they have so much, an area wherein trees will not grow and where life is particularly grim not only by reason of the winter temperatures but by reason also of the long period of short days and nights. Some portion of this tundra area extends to the region of the midnight sun. The midnight sun in summer means no sun at all in the winter, therefore as man conquers the earth, or to use the language of the Book of Genesis, inhabits the earth and subdues it, he stands more and more in need of the aid of artificial light. The importance of produced light has for half a century tended to be forgotten and it has taken the recent cuts in the electricity supply to bring modern civilisation back to the realisation that light is an important thing which is not to be taken for granted. The ancient civilisations of the East had a full appreciation of the value of light. They had to have it in order to overcome the darkness of their dwellings. The large window was a too open invitation for the thief and the invader of the home, consequently the easterners buikled their homes around a courtyard with blankwalls to the outside. Their interest in interior illumination resulted in their producing some very fine lamps, but this development was arrested and was almost lost in Europe during the period which was known as the Dark Ages. The great problem for Europe was to find a fuel which would burn with consistency without filling the dwelling chamber with smoke. In the East the discovery of oil made possible the lamp, but, England and France were far removed from these oil resources and something else had to be found. It can be conjectured that the experience of cooking meat over an open fire soon led to the discovery that animal fats were suitable as fuel for illumination and the using of reeds for wicks, gave the steady light desired by the house-dweller during his hours of darkness. It is in the nature of man to make but slow'progress over the centuries—there are of course periods of recession—but progress gathers an impetus of its own. The achievement of one step forward itself makes possible several more steps in the same direction. When oil found its way to Europe in the last century the cotton wick became available as well with the result that the oil-burning lamp was an advanced piece of machinery for the producing of artificial light. Gilbert White, in his “Natural History of Selbome,” was not wholly absorbed in his feathered neighbours. He could at times spare, a thought for his fellow men and how they managed their lives. Hence it was that in November, 1775, he bethought himself to write a letter giving details of the domestic economy of lighting. It is generally conceded today that electricity is the most convenient and the cheapest form of illumination, but just to give the electricians a mental shock it is as well to remind them that the poor peasants of the eighteenth century were able to solve their lighting problems without the aid of electrical engineers and such technological aristocracy as dominate the lives of men today. The common soft rush was the best species for the rushdip which was the home-made candle of the period. They are in their best of condition in the height of summer. “As soon as they are cut they must be flung into water and kept there; for otherwise they will dry and shrink and the peel will not run. At first a person would find it no easy matter to divest a rush of its peel or rind, so as to leave one regular, narrow, even rib from top to bottom that may support the pith: but this, like other feats, soon becomes familiar even to children; and we have seen an old woman, stone blind, performing this business with great despatch, and seldom failing to strip them with the nicest regularity.” “A pound of common grease may be procured for fourpenee; and about six pounds of grease will dip a pound of rushes; and one pound of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will cost three shillings. If men that keep bees will mix a little wax with the grease, it will give it a consistency, and render it more cleanly, and make the rushes burn longer: mutton suet would have the same effect.” Here is a good sideline for the power boards, the staff could turn to rushlight manufacture as a second string to the board’s bow.

“In a pound of dry rushes we found upwards of one thousand six hundred individuals. Now suppose eaeh of these burns only half an hour then the poor man will purchase eight hundred hours of light, a time exceeding thirty-three entire days, for three shillings. According to this account eaeh rush, before dipping, costs one thirty-third of a farthing and one-eleventh of a farthing afterwards. Thus a poor family will enjoy five and a-half hours of comfortable light for a farthing.” Gilbert White’s dissertation should make him first favourite with Mr. Nash, for both have a habit of leaving out some important factor in their little or big sums. Gilbert White left out of account the fact tjiat the cottager who made candles out of rush and tallow had to contribute liberally of his own time, for which the goodly naturalist rets down no cash equivalent. Nor should it be assumed that because there were no picture theatres and night life in the rural England of the eighteenth century time was of little value. There was as much for a man to do if a reasonable standard of comfort was sustained in that primitive period as there is on a Saturday morning for th* average New Zealand householder.

(i “An experienced old housekeeper assures me,” wrote White, that one pound and a-half of rushes completely supplies his family the year round, since working people burn no candle in the long days because they rise and go to bed by daylight.” There is no telling but that ancient custom will be revived if more users of electricity are crowded on to an already inadequate supply system. One never can tell what will happen in these uncertain times!