i88 3 .1 
On A vtificial Light. 
7 1 
III. ON ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. 
By An Old Technologist. 
* F we compare the present times with the past we find 
in no respe(5t a more utter contrast than in artificial 
light. There is firstly a great change in its quantity. 
In the proudest days of classical antiquity, just as amidst 
the barbarism of the Middle Ages, people of all sorts and 
conditions appear to have utilised the natural light of day 
to a much greater extent than do we. Noon, the culmina- 
ting point of the sun, was approximately the middle of men’s 
working and waking hours. Little or no daylight was spent 
in sleep, and, conversely, but little of the hours of darkness 
was devoted to work or amusement, or any kind of activity. 
It is quite outside of my business to trace the gradual 
changes which have brought about an entire divorce between 
the conventional and the astronomical meaning of the terms 
morning and evening. I may, however, briefly glance at the 
principal causes which have led to this social revolution. 
Foremost must rank the spread of civilisation, or rather of 
luxury, to countries situate under a high latitude and having 
a cold climate. 
In the regions bordering on the Mediterranean the day- 
light, even in winter, lasts long enough for the inhabitants 
to get through a reasonable sufficiency of work. Early 
rising, too, in all but exceptional seasons, is there pleasant. 
With us the daylight during at least four months of the year 
is insufficient for the purposes of business. The mornings, 
too, except in summer, are damp and raw, and only men of 
exceptional vigour are found rising early from choice. The 
habits of late rising and of working by artificial light having 
once been formed, these practices have gone on extending. 
Another reason for turning night into day is the greed 
connected with the organisation of modern society, which 
forces almost every man to devote more and more of his 
time, as well as of his energies, to the mere earning of a 
livelihood. The day is not considered long enough for work, 
and the only time left to the many for recreation, or even 
for thought, is the night. Hence we need wonder little that 
England, as the focus of industrial greed,* should be the 
* Other nations are fast following our example. 
