Artificial Light | Page 9

by adapting the facilities at hand to the growing requirements which his independent nature continuously nourished. His insistent demand for independence in turn has nourished his desire to learn nature's secrets and this desire has increased in intensity throughout the ages.
The act of imprisoning a glowing insect was in itself no greater stride along the highway of progress than the act of picking a tasty fruit from its tree. However, the crude lantern perhaps directed his primitive mind to the possibilities of artificial light. The flaming fagot from the fire was the ancestor of the oil-lamp, the candle, the lantern, and the electric flash-light. It is a matter of conjecture how much time elapsed before his feeble intellect became aware that resinous wood afforded a better light-source than woods which were less inflammable. Nevertheless, pine knots and similar resinous pieces of wood eventually were favored as torches and their use has persisted until the present time. In some instances in ancient times resin was extracted from wood and burned in vessels. This was the forerunner of the grease-and the oil-lamp. In the woods to-day the craftsman of the wilds keeps on the lookout for live trees saturated with highly inflammable ingredients.
Viewed from the present age, these smoking, flickering light-sources appear very crude; nevertheless they represent a wide gulf between their users and those primitive beings who were unacquainted with the art of making fire. Although the wood fire prevailed as a light-source throughout uncounted centuries, it was subjected to more or less improvement as civilization advanced. When the wood fire was brought indoors the day was extended and early man began to develop his crude arts. He thought and planned in the comfort and security of his cave or hut. By the firelight he devised implements and even decorated his stone surroundings with pictures which to-day reveal something of the thoughts and activities of mankind during a civilization which existed many thousand years ago.
When it was too warm to have a roaring fire upon the hearth, man devised other means for obtaining light without undue warmth. He placed glowing embers upon ledges in the walls, upon stone slabs, or even upon suspended devices of non-inflammable material. Later he split long splinters of wood from pieces selected for their straightness of grain. These burning splinters emitting a smoking, feeble light were crude but they were refinements of considerable merit. A testimonial of their satisfactoriness is their use throughout many centuries. Until very recent times the burning splinter has been in use in Scotland and in other countries, and it is probable that at present in remote districts of highly civilized countries this crude device serves the meager needs of those whose requirements have been undisturbed by the progress of civilization. Scott, in "The Legend of Montrose," describes a table scene during a feast. Behind each seat a giant Highlander stood, holding a blazing torch of bog-pine. This was also the method of lighting in the Homeric age.
Crude clay relics representing a human head, from the mouth of which the wood-splinters projected, appear to corroborate the report that the flaming splinter was sometimes held in the mouth in order that both hands of a workman would be free. Splinter-holders of many types have survived, but most of them are of the form of a crude pedestal with a notch or spring clip at its upper end. The splinter was held in this clip and burned for a time depending upon its length and the character of the wood. It was the business of certain individuals to prepare bundles of splinters, which in the later stages of civilization were sold at the market-place or from house to house. Those who have observed the frontiersman even among civilized races will be quite certain that the wood for splinters was selected and split with skill, and that the splinters were burned under conditions which would yield the most satisfactory light. It is a characteristic of those who live close to nature, and are thus limited in facilities, to acquire a surprising efficiency in their primitive activities.
An obvious step in the use of burning wood as a light-source was to place such a fire on a shelf or in a cavity in the wall. Later when metal was available, gratings or baskets were suspended from the ceiling or from brackets and glowing embers or flaming chips were placed upon them. Some of these were equipped with crude chimneys to carry away the smoke, and perhaps to increase the draft. In more recent centuries the first attempt at lighting outdoor public places was by means of metal baskets in which flaming wood emitted light. It was the duty of the watchman to keep these baskets supplied with pine knots. In early centuries street-lighting was not attempted, and