26 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
This dining-room is agreeably lighted by wax candles, but not brilliantly, 
in spite of the high reflection that is derived from the white walls and 
from the light ceiling 
Of course, the higher a room is the more light it takes to 
illuminate it—something like 10 per cent. for every addi- 
tional foot over g feet 6 inches—while rooms as low as 8 
feet 6 inches, with light ceiling and walls, need considerably 
less. 
To return to our dining-rooms that require five lights. 
For a ceiling fixture we can choose between a hanging dome, 
that should drop to a height of 4 feet 6 inches above the 
floor, a shower, a stem fixture, or a ceiling plate, all with 
lights pointing down. Once leaded domes were the fashion. 
The dining-room without a dome was as much out of it as 
the living-room without a dado was twenty years before this 
time. ‘To-day, in many parts of the country, the shower is 
the sine qua non of the multitude. In these localities, the 
dining-room without a shower is considered as barren as the 
Desert of Sahara. It makes not much difference what kind 
of a shower, or whether it gives the right kind of light in 
the right place; the great thing is to have a shower, like 
other people. The reason for having the dining-room fix- 
ture bulbs and shades point down is to light the table much 
while lighting the walls and ceiling little. Only when the 
room is used also as a living-room, or for general entertain- 
ment, is much general illumination necessary. 
On the whole, it seems to me that a leaded dome of good 
design, in luminous colors, lights a small dining-room more 
suitably and more agreeably than any other fixture. But 
everything depends on the colors and the quality of the glass. 
The cheap opaque dome that reflects al] the light down, 
leaving the upper part of the room in black shadow, is hard 
on the eyes and decoratively ugly. But the dome that glows 
with golden radiance, distributing enough to ceiling and 
upper walls to avoid blackness there, is easy on the eyes 
and right decoratively. The fault with ceiling plates and 
showers and stem fixtures is that they give too much general 
illumination and not enough at the table. But when the 
lights hang low, shades carefully selected will cure the fault. 
A special reason for leaded, or iridescent, or color-enameled 
shades in a dining-room is that of all the rooms in a house it 
is usually and rightly the richest in color. But be sure that 
the colors of the shades are close to the colors of the room— 
with a tendency away from reds and blues and greens to- 
wards golden yellows and oranges. i 
Here a few words on color in lighting may not be out of 
place. As everybody knows, many persons are color-blind 
January, 1912 
Tg 
Crystal Bente and balls a cayatal Deel iD atl diabare ‘the light from 
candles with frosted cone bulbs. The illumination is brilliant, but 
without disagreeable effect 
to reds and blues—the red rays at one end of the spectrum 
being too long for their eyes, and the blue rays at the other 
end too short. But with the golden yellow rays in the mid- 
dle of the spectrum everyone can see well, and in them is 
contained the effective luminosity of light. Once it was the 
fashion to cry for white light, and every new electric lamp 
put on the market was advertised by its promoters as giving 
whiter light than any other and light more like that of the sun. 
Now, white light may be all right when matching ribbons 
and dress goods and millinery—although one would imagine 
that in matching fabrics to be seen by night the kind of 
artificial light commonly found would be better. However, 
white light at its best is not at all suitable for decorative 
illumination. No one who has had experience in decorating 
would use tungstens in residence lighting, except in the 
kitchen or in domes and in lanterns and shades that partially 
eliminate the reds and blues, turning the white light in the 
direction of golden yellow. Good light in a kitchen prevents 
waste and promotes quickness and accuracy of domestic 
service. ‘The best way to secure it is with a single 60 to 100- 
watt tungsten, close to the ceiling, with frosted top and 
with wide shade of alba glass. At minimum cost, on account 
of the superior efficiency of the tungsten, the room will be 
flooded with illumination that is brilliant but not disagree- 
able, though not satisfactory for the master rooms. It is 
the master rooms—main halls, library, reception-room or 
parlor, sitting-room or living-room—that call for the prin- 
cipal part of the fixture appropriation. The fixtures must 
be in harmony with the furniture and draperies that in these 
rooms are more expensive and elaborate than elsewhere. 
And in these rooms the illumination must be brilliant; not 
only the general illumination when guests are present, but 
also the local illumination, when one wishes to read, or 
write, or sew, or embroider. 
General illumination, of course, means light evenly dis- 
tributed through the whole of a room, while local illumina- 
tion is light concentrated at one particular spot. This gen- 
eral illumination is most economically and agreeably ob- 
tained by wall and ceiling reflection. When walls and ceil- 
ings are light in color—especially in ivory or cream—and 
the ceiling is not high, light is reflected and re-reflected and 
eficiency is multiplied. Twenty-five watts here produces 
more illumination than one hundred watts in a room with 
dark walls and ceiling. It is important to remember that the 
amount of light generated in a room by no means determines 
the amount of illumination. Complicated pattern and intri- 
cate texture in dark tones on furniture and draperies and 
walls swallow up the light. Under such circumstances lights 
must be many and widely distributed, for the only luminous 
