The Opelousas courier., 1884-02-02
ARTIFICIAL ILLUMINATION.
The Means Employed 20 Produce Ara
tfficial Light and Flame.

tificial Lighs and Flame.
Artificial light is probably as ancient
IS the human race or the use of fire. and
the means employed to produce it among
savage tribes have scarcely advanced be-
Tond burning branches of trees, or splin-
ters OF wood, while among civilized ma
lions il has advanced to d point that can
almost be considered perfection.
Torches were probablythe first improve
ment, and lamps even of he simplest kind
DISPLAY q great advance in refinement, as
they require q combination of contriYan-
ces, such as the preparation of the oil. q
vessel to hold 1t and a proper substance
Tor a wick. 1t seems remarkable that the
ancient nations, who displayed great skill
and taste in many things, should have
made no Improvement in lamps, except
that OF its form. Antique lamps have
been found in Herculaneum, Pompeii and
other ancient cities of almost infinite va
rIefy, made of baked clay, r of bronze
from the most simplest forms to those Of
khen most studied description, and admir-
able for the beauty of their workmanship,
but the principle of the lamp scarcely va
rles from what must have been the origi-
nal contrlvance of an open vessel with a
wick laid in the oil. The light furnished
by these lamps must have been weak and
unsteady, and as there were no means for
destroying the smoke, it was very annoy
ing in closed apartments.
Simple as is the continuance of can
dies, they do not seem to have been
known to the ancients, who for a long
time continued to make use of the lamp
only. A species of candles were, how
ever, made by the Romans of strings of
PUSHES dipped in pitch and surrounded
by wax, but they were not in general
use, as an ancient writer, in describing a
feast, states that there were twelve torches
in the hall held by twelve Wallets.
Sometime during the twelfth century
candles made of wax, fastened in chan
deliers, were introduced into general use
in the churches, and as refinement in
creased they came into use among the
nobility and wealthy all over Europe,
while those of tallow were adopted by
the middle classes. The discovery by
Argand, by which the smoke Of lamps
was destroyed, produced a new era in
artificial illumination, and lamps which
had long been banished from the best
apartments, were again restored to favor,
and came IN general use.
The material used for supplying the
flame was either animal, vegetable or
fish oil, but the latter was used most ex-
tensiveIy, and continued in general use
until the supply of whales, from which
the larger portion wa obtained, conf
menced to be exhausted, when men ex-
ercised their ingenuity to the utmost to
invent some substance to take its place.
The result was a variety of ~infiammable
fluids, the majority of which were found
highly explosive and unsafe to use.
Nearly thirty years ago coal oil was
discovered in immense quantities in Penn
~sylvania, and its superior Illuminating
powers, combined with its small cost,
soon gave it . popularity which it re-
tains to this day, and the cabin of the
humble laborer is now better lighted
through It's agency than the palaces of
the wealthy were in the early ages. The
poor man can now, through the material
supplied from natures great laboratory
and the achievements of science, enjoy a
light equal TO that Of his wealthy neigh
Dor.
Other means were, however, tried
for producing artificial light, and al
early as 1888 Ii was discovered by DR..
Clayton, a celebrated chemist, that the
gas which arose from bituminous coal,
when subjected to a red heat in q retort,
was highly in~fammable, and burned with
q bright flame when brought in contact
with the air and ignited.
No effort seems to have been made te
utilize this important discovery until the
year 1892, when q Mr.. Murdoch, who
was an engineer In the machine works Of
Messrs. Watt & Boutton at Soho, neal
Birmingham, England, conceived the
idea of producing light on IN extensive
scale by means of gas. and after severa
years In experimenting, applied it to the
lighting of his own house and after thai
introduced it into the extensive works 81
his employers, which were lighted fol
the first time by this means on the occa,
sion Of the peace of Amiens In I798.
But Notwithstanding these successful
experiments, and also the fact that sey,
eral other manufactures in Birmingham
Manchester, and other places Wert
lighted with gas under the supervision
Of Mr.. Murdoch, 80 little was the gen
eral public acquainted with the merits O.
the invention that it was looked upoI
BIZ most persons as merely q speculation
calculated to delude, and not likely Il
ever be adopted to any considerable OK
tent.
in the commencement o. the preeen
carh1rrv III was introduced into the Ly