Artificial Light | Page 9

lowly organisms endowed with such a wonderful ability?"

Despite his highly developed mind and body and his boasted
superiority, man must go forth and learn the secrets of light-production
before he may emancipate himself from darkness. If man could emit
light in relative proportion to his size as compared with the firefly, he
would need no other torch in the coal-mine. How independent he would
be in extreme darkness where his adapted eyes need only a feeble
light-source! Primitive man, desiring a light-source and having no
means of making fire, imprisoned the glowing insects in a perforated
gourd or receptacle of clay, and thus invented the first lantern perhaps
before he knew how to make fire. The fireflies of the West Indies emit
a continuous glow of considerable luminous intensity and the natives
have used these imprisoned insects as light-sources. Thus mankind has
exhibited his superiority 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