PREFACE 



This work undertakes to present the salient features of an encyclo 

 paedic subject in a more or less condensed fashion. The importance 

 of this study of heating and illumination is thought to be its contri- 

 bution to the history of culture as connected with the inventiveness 

 displayed by man in the adaptation of the primary natural key force 

 nearest to his needs in all the earUer stages of progress. The history 

 also suggests the intellectual, esthetic, and reUgious reactions mark- 

 ing the several stages of culture gradually attained by man. 



In the treatment of this subject the chief consideration is given to 

 the earlier steps in the utilization of fire. The later stages marked 

 by the proUferation of the modern period do not call for more than 

 casual attention. 



Classification. — Heating and illumination are the grand divisions of 

 the subject. These comprehend all the topics relating to the uses of 

 fire. Under heating are included applications of fire to warming the 

 body, the house, cooking, smelting, timbering, heahng, decoration, to 

 cult, and numerous other uses. Under illumination are the applica- 

 tion of light to a myriad purposes, from utilitarian to the highest 

 phases of esthetic and religious ideas. 



Nearest of the energies of the universe and the greatest within the 

 range of man's needs is fire. Wind and water are also primitive ap- 

 proaches to natural energies, but these change nothing while fire is a 

 transforming agent (pi. 1). 



" What are the most brilliant of our chemical discoveries compared 

 with the invention of fire and the metals? " — Disraeli. 



"Fire, greatest of discoveries, enabling man to live in various 

 climates, use many foods, and compel the forces of nature to do his 

 work. 



''Electricity, carrier of light and power, devourer of time and space. 

 Bearer of human speech over land and sea, greatest servant of man, 

 itseK unknown," ^ 



Because of the intimate connection of fire with the culture growth 

 of humanity, whatever relates to the antiquity of the use of fire must 

 be of peculiar value in the history of early progress . Anthropological 



J Inscription on Union Station, Washington, D. C, selected by Dr. Charles W. Eliot and approved by 

 Woodrow Wilson. 



XI 



