ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN OUR HOMES 



243 



This gives good distribution of light within the room. If a 

 room is too light, and at the same time too hot in summer, 

 we can adjust the amount of light entering by means of 

 blinds or awnings. The Venetian blind or porch shade is 

 a convenient type to 

 use, for it shuts out 

 the sun's rays with- 

 out preventing a cir- 

 culation of air. 



Artificial light in 

 our homes. It was 

 not so many years 

 ago that candles 

 were the sole source 

 of light in our homes, 

 and at the present 

 time, candle light 



lends a pleasant glow to birthday and Christmas parties. 

 Up to the time of the Civil War, tallow candles, pine knots, 

 and heavy oils were common sources of light for reading. 

 People to-day use eighteen times as much light as they 

 did one hundred fifty years ago, and at one third the cost. 



The first gas plant in America was started at Philadelphia 

 in 1815. Then candles cost two and one-half cents each 

 and would burn for seven hours. About the middle of the 

 nineteenth century the whaling industry was at its height, 

 and sperm oil was burned in lamps. Petroleum was first 

 used in 1858 for lighting purposes, and so rapidly did its 

 use grow that in 1860, two million barrels were produced, 

 and to-day, almost three hundred million barrels a year. 

 Although artificial gas was slow in its introduction, yet 

 it now plays a very important part in the lighting of our 



Both these rooms receive the same amount of light. 

 One has dark wall paper and the other light. 



