240 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



"Among the minor articles found in the tomb, none was of greater 

 or more curious interest than the little bronze candlestick, shaped in 

 the form of Ankh, and provided with metal bands for attaching the 

 linen wicks soaked in oil. No such objects have hitherto 

 a been found, and while we need not imagine that these 

 small stands were representative of the sole lighting of 

 the Egyptian palaces, they yet give us an idea of the 

 inconveniences which went along with the splendors of 

 life in ancient Egypt, for the light which such devices 

 h can have given must have been of the most inefficient 

 and unstable sort."^^ 



g. A lamp. The surviving lamp in Egypt, called by 



the Arabs kandeel, consisting of a cup of glass with a 



glass tube rising from the middle of the bottom. Water 



^ is poured in, reaching below the mouth of the tube. Oil 



is poured in, covering the mouth of the tube. The 



wick is a stick or straw with a cord of cotton wound 



-w J around it thrust in the tube. The papyrus of Ani 



A— 1 shows such a lamp, the upper part of the flame in red 



and the lower in white. It is termed "a cult lamp, 



everlasting lamp put in the funeral chamber by the 



Egyptians. "3" 



h. Meaning a feeble light, apparently a taper held in 

 the hand. 



Another form, meaning light, consists of a series of 

 four, like (a) connected in circuit at the bases with a 

 line curving back to the third. This may be a portable 

 torch, suggestive to those borne by porters in Cairo 

 /\ years ago. 



In view of the great amount of mural work, involving 



^ careful and in some cases minute carving, drawing, and 



^4n application of color in unlighted places, the setting up 



j j ^ of tomb furniture and other work underground, it 



*■ — * is evident that the Egyptians had adequate artificial 



lights reasonably free from smoke. On this premise it 



is not necessary to presume anything like mysterious 



lost inventions in lighting, as electric bulbs, even if 



the hieroglyphs suggest them. The hieroglyphs and 



tomb discoveries reveal a range of lighting apparatus 



Egyptian hiero- at about 3,500 years ago equal to that of Rome in 



QLYPHics REFER- ^hc bcst pcriod or that of the time of Louis the Fifteenth. 



KINO TO LIGHT 



It is affirmed as a reasonable criticism that the fights 

 which the Egyptians developed, certainly the lamp and almost certainly 



"James Baikle. The life of the Ancient East, London, 1923, p. 170. 



** Book of the Dead, Papyrus of Ani. British Museum, London, 1895. See Carter and Mace, p. 164. 



