4 BULLETIN 141^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



camp fire or as elaborate as those prepared for a Roman funeral or 

 the artistic flambeaux of the Middle Ages. For a long period the 

 torch was the onl}'^ form of illuminant known to humanity. It is 

 also the most ancient beginning in illumination. 



It will be seen that the series has at the beginning several usages 

 of materials for light, which are included as steps in development. 

 These are the use of fireflies, and the burning of the fat bodies 

 of fish and birds or of fat faggots of wood or bunched palm leaf. 

 Strictly speaking, these may stand at the beginning of either the 

 torch or lamp. Before the making of torches for a definite use for 

 light there is little to more than suggest the earliest stages. 



It is necessary to exercise caution in explaining the devices which 

 might be classed on account of their simplicity as belonging to the 

 stage when the first steps were made in the use of artificial light. A 

 device may be a temporary expedient assuming a primitive character 

 though not representing a period or tribal usage ; it may represent a 

 beginning acculturation, or a decayed survival. In the earlier stages 

 habitual use is not likely to be well established and we have uses 

 as events and not in a regular sequence. 



As the development of the arts of life gradually went on at dif- 

 ferent rates in especially favored and unfavored regions the torch 

 took part in this growth or remained simple, according to circum- 

 stances. As the demand increased for lighting within the house 

 other devices were necessary, and these led toward the candle. In 

 civilized countries torch makers found that rope imbued with wax, 

 resin, or tar formed a rigid though crude torch, which the English 

 called link. These links entered into the picturesque night life of 

 European cities, and with the links came " link boys," extinguishers, 

 and link rests, the two latter perhaps remaining on the walls near 

 the entrances of great old buildings. As an example of a somewhat 

 remarkable survival, one of these links was found in use on a rail- 

 road in Spain in 1892. It is a section of coarse fiber rope dipped in 

 resin. (Plate 3, fig. 10, Cat. No. 178164; Walter Hough. 27.6 inches 

 (70 cm.) long.) 



Torches made by the aggregation of rodlike materials, as cane, 

 seem to have preceded the flambeaux formed of a bundle of cords 

 dipped in inflammable materials. It appears that such cords pre- 

 ceded the candle and it is probable that their use dates rather far 

 back into classical times. Individual cords of greater or lesser length 

 became the taper. The taper was coiled in plain or fanciful ways, or 

 laid in vessels, some of them resembling the reservoir of a lamp on a 

 stand. The taper required constant attention in drawing up sec- 

 tions for free burning. In Virginia the taper light was called " pull 

 up," an apt descriptive term. An excellent specimen is shown in 



