Home lighting began as soon as man learned to make fire and discovered it helped people to see after the sunlight was no longer available. This extended the hours of the day for activity. Gradually man found a need to make this wonderful source of light portable. He learned to make torches and found he could put flammable material in small containers to move about and give light to several smaller areas at once. He learned to add animal and later vegetable oil to the combustible material to get a more efficient lighting system. He became creative with what he burned and what he used to contain the light. The word lamp stems from the Greek word lampas which means torch.
Man learned to create vessels for his light which he made first of shells and stone and later of metal and pottery. At some point he learned that a wick made the oil burn in a more manageable way. Around 400 AD man discovered that using bees wax with a wick made light last longer. Bees wax was not as readily available as tallow, so bees wax was reserved for religious purposes and the common folk had to be content with the less efficient tallow light. Man created elaborate ways of holding candles and reflecting light but the basic system did not change until around 1783 when Ami Argand, a Swiss chemist, added a glass chimney to an oil lamp which in turn resulted in less smoke and a brighter light.
In the early 1800’s William Murdock used gas to heat and light his home in Scotland. At about the same time, Sir Davy Humphry invented the electric arc light which was used to light theaters and street lamps. In the 1820’s gas lighting became popular in England. The Chestnut Theater in Philadelphia first used gas lighting in 1816. The problem of production, storage and metering had been solved by the mid 1800’s and by the 1860’s gas jets with glass chimneys were common in cities in the US. In the 1850’s kerosene was distilled from petroleum found in mines and was used to fuel lamps for a cheap portable source of light.
In 1878 Thomas Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company with a mission to produce light and heat by means of electricity. In the late 1800’s the Kliegl Brothers founded the American Lighting Manufacturer. Thus began our use of the modern electric lamp and shade. Today we use hundreds of materials to create lights that make use of a magnitude of color and texture. That means that outdoor and indoor lighting are not only functional but also a decorating tool. Lamps and their shades have become an art form in the blown glass of the light extravagances of Dale Chihuly or Tiffany lamps and as simple and utilitarian as our weather resistant outdoor table lamp shades.
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