CHAPTER LXXX 

 LIGHTING THE COUNTRY HOME 



Development. It is extremely interesting to study the 

 development of the art of lighting, or illumination; yet it is 

 not the function of this chapter to discuss this phase of the 

 subject. Our fathers and mothers were compelled while 

 young to depend on the tallow candle, the tallow dip, or 

 the light of the fire in the fireplace. History relates how 

 many of our famous men of the past century spent hours 

 in the flickering light from the "back log" poring over a book 

 which they were endeavoring to master. The petroleum 

 industry was not developed until 1860, and the general 

 use of kerosene in lamps did not come until many years 

 after this. The kerosene lamp, when provided with a 

 chimney to control the draft and produce more perfect com- 

 bustion, was a great improvement over the ill-smelling 

 and smoking tallow candle or dip. 



The various sources of light for rural conditions are the 

 kerosene lamp, the gasoline lamp or system, the acetylene lamp 

 or system, and the electric lighting plant. Alcohol might be 

 burned in lamps, but at its present cost cannot compete with the 

 petroleum oils. These various systems will be discussed in turn. 



The Unit of Light — The Standard Candle. In comparing 

 lamps it is necessary to refer to the unit of illumination, the 

 standard candle by which all lamps are rated. The standard 

 candle for the United States and Great Britain is the sperm 

 candle seven-eighths of an inch in diameter and burning 120 

 grains of sperm per hour. This standard is not very satisfac- 

 tory, as it tends to vary. The International Unit of Light 



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