282 



NA TURE 



[jufy 19, 1SS3 



totality, according to the elements we have adoptei, will con- 

 tinue for 6m. 31s. Near St. Philip de Benguela, on the central 

 line, we find the sun will be hidden for 4m. 23s., but the locality 

 will hardly attract observers. It would rather appear that we 

 must look for observations of this eclipse to the Windward 

 Islands only. The small island of Blanquilla is close upon the 

 central line, but the sun has of cour.-e a less altitude there than 

 in Grenada. 



The eclipse of August 7-8, 1850, one of the same series, was 

 observed in the Sandwich Islands, the whole track of totality 

 lying on the Pacific. 



Tempel's Comet, 1873, II. — According to M. Schulhof's 

 corrected elements of this comet's orbit, which assigned a period 

 of revolution of 5-200 years, at the last appearance in 1878, the 

 next perihelion passage, neglecting the effect of perturbation, 

 which can hardly he very material during the present revolution, 

 may take place about November 19 under circumstances that 

 will render observations difficult if they are, practicable at all. 

 Assuring the comet to be in perihelion on November 19-5 

 G.M.T., we should have about the following positions : — 



K.A. 



N.P.D. 



Log. a. 



Log. r. 



Intensity 

 of light. 



Oct. 18-5 ... 16 38-8 ... 108 59 ... 0-275 •■• 0-142 ... 0-146 

 Nov. 195 ... 18 331 ... 114 i ... 0286 ... 0-127 ■■• °''49 

 Dec. 215 ... 20 364 ... 113 o ... 0313 ... 0-142 ... 0-124 



In 1873, under an intensity of light of 0-385, the comet was the 

 extrimum visibile, in a fine sky, with a 7-inch refractor. 



SOLID AND LIQUID ILLUMINATING AGENTS 



THE Journal of the Society of Arts publishes in a recent 

 number an interesting lecture given by Mr. Leopold Field, 

 F.C.S., on " Solid and Liquid Illuminating Agents." Mr. Field 

 not only deals with the chemistry of these bodies, but he gives 

 also a most interesting account of the means of lighting in use 

 among the ancients, to which a brief reference may be made. 



The earliest known method of illumination was in all proba- 

 bility that of the torch, fprmerly used largely in northern 

 countries, and doubtless still furnishing the Lapp and the Finn 

 with their light. The torch is cut from the pitch pine, and 

 around it clings the exuded resin. When lighted it burns with 

 a large red flame, producing a great deal of smoke. Used for 

 cooking purposes a brand might get saturated with fat, so that it 

 would burn longer without consuming its own fibre. 



This, as pointed out by Mr. Field, was the old method of 

 lighting. Substituting for their brand a piece of rope and 

 saturating this with pitch or resin we get the modern link, con- 

 necting us on foggy days with the old modes of lighting. The 

 work link itself, and probably also the idea, comes from the Greek 

 \vx"os, or perhaps the Latin luchnus (Cicero) as the German 

 faciei comes from the Greek <pdtteAos (faggot), a bundle of sticks 

 — after, a torch. But our own word torch is more evidently 

 from the Latin tartitium, a twisted thing, now however more 

 properly applicable to the link. Our pine torch too is obtained 

 from the Roman Acdir— slips of the toeda, or Italian pitch pine, 

 that being the usual outdoor light of Rome; whilst Funalia, 

 which Virgil tells us were used to light Dido's palace — 



" dependent lychni Iaquearibus aureis 



Incensi, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt. " 



is evidently from funis, a rope. Their composition was rather 

 that of a finer kind of link, flambeaux, consisting of a centre of 

 oakum, which was surrounded by alternate layers of rosin and 

 crude beeswax, outside of all being a bleached coating of the 

 latter. They were more costly than other kinds of torch, and 

 giving a less smoky light were more generally employed for the 

 illumination of halls, staircases, &c. 



At what date this torch fell into disuse is a question which 

 cannot be definitely answered, as in old times words applied 

 to various illuminating agents, which have a very fixed and 

 definite meaning in our day, were then interchangeable. In our 

 translation of the Scriptures "candle "and "candlestick" are 

 used indiscriminately with laiup, and, did we not know that 

 candles proper and candlesticks were unknown at this period, we 

 might infer that they were both in use. An explanation of this 

 ue of the words "candle" and "candlestick," however, i- 

 found in the fact that the Latin candelabrum and the Greek 

 \vxria, I atin luclmuchus (Cicero), meant " lampstand." 



Again, in Matt. xxv. 1-5, where we find the parable of the 

 Virgins, the word \vxfhs is rendered lamp. But a study of the 



etymology of the words shows that they are derived from roots 

 signifying to shine or burn — as camlela, KavSfaa, akin to candeo, 

 to shine (Persian, handed ; Sans., tan) — \vx"os, lucerna, from 

 lux, light (Sans, lot), \dfi-was, lampas, probably connected with 

 lame, and the Hebrew lapad, to shine. 



But although it is doubtful at what date the torch fell into 

 disuse, it may be concluded that it was succeeded by the lamp. 

 We find evidence of this in studying mythology. Thus Ceres, 

 according to the old legend, sought her daughter in hell with a 

 torch ; Apuleius make- Psyche drop hot oil on Cupid from a 

 lamp. Whether cindles proper, i.e. wicks surrounded with wax, 

 were known before or after lamps ha I come ino use is doubtful. 

 Martial (first century a.d.) speaks thus cot ceming the candle : — 



" Nomina candela- nobis antiqua dederunt 



Non norat parcos uncta lucerna patres." — (Ep. xiv. 43). 



Here, however, torch, i.e. funalia — which the old Romans in 

 reference to its shining qualities w ould rather call candela than 

 funalia — may be alluded to. In the Greek the word Ka.vii\\a is 

 a derivation from the Latin, not being met with until it is found 

 in the writings of Athenoeus. This author lived in the second 

 century A.C., and in his " Deipnosophistas " he says : — 



" i/xol 5e 7ro? SwpoiSzuTvc doaapiov Kav$TJ\as 7rpi&>." 



By that time, however, the rushlight had come into pretty 

 general use, and no doubt it is to this that reference is here 

 made. 



But it is from a passage in Apuleius's Metam. iv. that we get 

 the most valuable and conclusive information on this point. A 

 noise being heard in the middle of the night, we are told that 

 the household come in with "tredis, lucerna, sebaceis, cerci-, et 

 ceteris," that is with torches of pine, lamps, tallow candles, and wax 

 iapers, which therefore clearly proves that candles both of was 

 and tallow were in use at this date. It seems, however, that 

 the candle was probably used by the poorer people. At all 

 events the lamp was a mark of respectability, as in another verse 

 of Martial (Apoph. 42) we find that an apology is made for the 

 use of a wax light instead of a lamp : — 



*' Hie tibi nocturnos prxstabit cereus ignis 

 Subducta est puero namque lucerna tuo." 



Juvenal (iii. 287) also speaks of the " breve lumen candela?." 

 In the British Museum, too, there is a fragment of a large candle 

 found in Vaison, near Orange, and said to belong to the first 

 century A. c. Such candles were probably provided with w icks 

 consisting of the pith of rushes rudely covered with crude wax 

 or tallow. Candlesticks for these existed, and later on they had 

 a spike to penetrate the butt of the candle. However, the name 

 candelabrum was more generally applied to the pillar on which 

 the oil lamp stood or from which it was suspended. Since no 

 attempt was made to provide for the current of air so necessary 

 for proper combustion, these old lamps smoked exceedingly, so 

 much indeed that it was the duty of one of the slaves of the 

 household to go round each morning and wipe the soot from the 

 pictures and statues. In one ease, however, at the Ereetheum 

 of the Athens Acropolis, the lamp, which was of pure gold, was 

 provided with a Hue. This was a very large lamp, requiring to 

 be filled but once in a year. Callimachus designed it For the 

 new temple about 400 B.C., but the smoke was found to be so 

 great an evil in anything designed for such a purpose, that the lamp 

 w as provided with a chimney in the shape of a bronze palm-tree 

 inverted. But however magnificent and elaborate the design, it 

 is certain that the economy < f the lamp remained stationary. 



It was generally filled with olive oil and provided with a wick 

 either of oakum, or of the dearer Carpasian flax (cotton?). 

 Occasionally, Pliny informs us, bitumen was used to fill the 

 lamp ; Italy, in some parts, being rich in springs of that mineral 

 and petroleum. Further east, and especially among the tribes 

 dwelling on the shores of the Dead Sea, bitumen and naphtha 

 w ere much used as illuminating agents, and for other purposes. 

 It may be suggested that the sacred pit-fire Nepti was of this 

 nature. The well-known Egyptologist, Mr. Basil Cooper, has 

 suggested the following as the origin of the word naphtha, viz. 

 A T .4, water, of Phtha, the Hephceslos, or Vulcan of Egypt's 

 deities, the gcd of fire. This idea receives some support from 

 the fact that the Indians who sold the first petroleum as Seneca 

 oil, and used it largely in their rites of worship, termed it fire- 

 water, which naire is now applied to alcohol. 



Herodotus (ii. 62), writing of the I.ychnokaie (feast of lamps) 

 at Sais, in Egypt, in 450 B.C., only expresses surprise at the 

 number of the lamps, and not at the lamps themselves, so that 

 by this time they were getting into general use. Although their 



