FIEE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 



185 



It is a question whether the first use of fire was not more for the 

 benefits of its Hght than for any other quaUty. In a life the reverse 

 of artificial, like that pursued by our remote ancestors, fire heat could 

 only be a subordinate need. Anterior to all these considerations we 

 must suppose that man liked fire and that he was heliotropic, as biolo- 

 gists apply the term. Thus it follows that his instincts were in 

 accord with the act of taking up fire and making it a part of his 

 material belongings. 



The successive culminations of lighting inventions is graphically 

 shown in the following illustration (fig. 3) . 



The rational of Hght is still subject to investigation, in which prog- 

 ress is being recorded, but nothing conclusive as to its physical 

 explanation has yet been reached. The natural cause, which is the 

 first division, and the manifestations of Hght in nature are not in the 

 scope of this work. Artificial causes in the sense of man's manipula- 

 tion of this branch of the correlated forces of nature to minister to 



Fig. 3.— Graph illustrating the rise and culmination of lighting inventions 



his needs is the second division. In this branch is seen the develop- 

 ment of illumination from simple devices to complex adaptations 

 drawn from chemistry and physics. Thus the history of illumination 

 may begin with the burning brand, cover the wide field of illumi- 

 nants, becoming more complex through reactions of other activities, 

 until it reaches the threshold of the age of science and invention. 

 It is observed that iUumination throughout the greater part of its 

 history depended upon organic materials, that is, carbon fixed by 

 Hfe forms. In the age of science and invention, which may also be 

 characterized as the age of the harnessing of the physical forces, elec- 

 tricity opens a new field and a new illuminating agency. 



The purpose for which light is to be used, the place of its use, the 

 culture period, and the environment are modifying influences on 

 materials and the character of the apparatus. 



It appears inevitable that the higher types of illumination appa- 

 ratus would not have arisen save in the temperate zone, where the 

 nights are long. The open fat lamp would seem to originate in many 

 cases from the kind of fuel available fo" burning, as well as from the 

 enforced simplicity of a low stage of culture. The Eskimo were 



