80 
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. 
BY D. T. ANSTED, M.A., F.K.S. 
U P to the close of the last century the best contrivances in 
use tor obtaining artificial light were limited, to oil lamps 
of very imperfect and uneconomical construction, and candles of 
wax and tallow. Blazing torches of pine, ends of rope soaked 
with tar, and occasional bonfires of tar-barrels, might serve for 
special occasions, but could hardly be looked upon as available for 
ordinary purposes, and other better contrivances were unknown. 
In warm countries, where tolerably pure vegetable oils are easily 
and cheaply obtained, where the winter nights are not very long, 
and where, therefore, little artificial light is needed, a piece of 
twisted cotton or yarn partly resting in a saucer of oil serves all 
purposes. Lamps of the most elegant form, but of this very simple 
construction, were in all former times, and are still, used by all 
classes in Greece and Italy. Such lamps date back to the 
remotest antiquity, and a sea-shell has no doubt served as their, 
original model. The jar of oil on a shelf alwaj^s at hand serves 
indifferently for feeding the lamp and for cooking, and indeed 
many travellers have recorded, though by no means with satis- 
faction, that they have seen the very lamp itself, burning in the 
chimney, taken down from its place in order that a part of its 
rich contents might be poured out to assist in some savoiuy fry 
going on below. 
In cooler climates, where the winter nights are much longer and 
where oil readily congeals, lamps were long ago replaced by can- 
dles. At first rushes, and afterwards cotton wicks, were dipped 
in hard animal fat or tallow in a molten state, and when cool 
were ready for use. A better kind of candle was made after a 
time, by pouring purified tallow into moulds in which twisted 
wicks were previously fixed • and hence the division of tallow 
candles into moulds and dips. Both required constant snuffing, 
and if long neglected were dangerous, owing to the unburnt 
i carbon which collected at the top of the wick, and at last fell 
off in a state of red-lieat. 
Candles manufactured from beeswax, purified and bleached 
by long exposure to the sun and by some chemical processes, 
served as an admirable but veiy costly substitute for tallow; but 
no large quantity could ever have been obtained, and they could 
never enter into general use. 
