The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-17
THE EVOLUTION OF LIGHTING SYSTEMS Oil Lights Expensive In the An-
 cient Days HOW GAS WAS FIRST MADE Edison Demonstrated Possibilities of Electric Light in 1880 and His invention Has Revolution
 ized illumination.
HOW GAS WAS FIRST MADE
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

BY FREDERIC j. HASkIN.
 As the sun went down the Cave Man
 covered in the gloom of his hillside
 home, trembling at the thought of the
 dangers that lay in the shadows beyond.
 There would be no moon and he shiv-
 cred with dread because fear of the
 dark is the first of mans primeval in-
 stincts. Then the Cave Man knelt on
 the dirt floor of his rude habitation and | performed a trick that he had learned
 rom another skin-clad man who once l Iared that way. He rubbed two pieces
 Of dry wood together, caught the spark
 on rotted wood, piled twgs and sticks
 on the flame, and light had come to him.
 The flames flickered against the rude
 picture-writing on the walls and the
 cave Man rested content, for he knew l that the wild things of the forest would
 not venture beyond the rim of dark
 ness He was secure in his enclosure l or light He tore a burning branch from
 the flames and set 1t in a crotch in the
 wall then watched it glow until sleep ] weighed down upon him and he drifted into the land of dreams to hunt with 1 rough stone weapons the mammoth and
 dinosauria The centuries swung noise- lessly along.
 onfthe acropolis of ancient Athens a beauty-loving people set a temple to
 the gods and in that temple swung
 lamp of gold fragrant with burning oils.
 This swaying censer measured tle years
 or golden age in land rife with
 beauty \and song. To the west a king,
 savage ruthless king, filled his cruel soul with wild joy as he drove his chariot down avenues lighted by the burning bodies of a persecuted people. On the shores of the blue Italian seas lived other subjects of this brutal emperor, subjects who pressed the oil from olives and burned 1t in lamps of bronze or earthenware. As it fed the flames this oil gave off the fragrant fumes of spices and In It's glow. to the gentle strumming or stringed instruments. there was told the glorious deeds Of gods and heroes
 NesuYius extinguished these lights and the world lost them as the centuries still swung along.
 In an old English hall, lord and lady
 sat at evening to hear the songs of
 wandering minstrsls Gathered about the
 fire were warriors, ladies in waiting
 pages, falconers and retainers Armor and trophies of the hunt hung on the
 walls and over all fared lights from
 torches and candles set in iron sconces Between the Cave Man and the English lord the advance of lighting had been
 slow. and the first adventurous souls who came to American shores found the lighting of their homes such difficult problem that their first effortsV really went back toward the Cave Man in-
 stead of advancing from the English i lord.
 Greater ingenuity in making lights was needed among the pioneers than the peo- pie of the Anglo-Saxon race had prac- t1ced for centuries. Candles could not be had at first because the only wax
 was from wild honey bees Tallow was
 scarce for cattle were almost as rare as precious stones. A string thrust in a i saucer of lard gave light in many homes, and pine knots were set as torches in cabins from Boston harbor to the shores Of Florida. So precious were pine knots that the town of Providence enacted a
 law protecting them, saying that no tar
 should be manufactured from ptch-wood within certain limits.
 New England had the bayberry of which to make candles, but ,Ights of this kind were woefully scarce In 1890 l Captain Ichabod Paddock proved the l great benefactor of the coonists by i bringing in the first whale-ol. Rude lamps were filled with this material and 1 the good danes prolonged their work | ing hours, bending again to loom and | wheel by the dim light. Over a century I and a half ago some wealthy Portugese l Jews made spermaceti candles in the New l England states, and Providence alone had I seventeen establishments engaged in | such manufacturing. Lanterns of iron
 and horn and tattooed tin were the sev- enteenth century forerunner Of the bul's- l eye of today, and were all the night 1 traveller had to guide his path Candles and whale oil lamps were all that the I theatres had to bring out the greatest scenes.
 | The unlighted streets of early America | were dangerous travelling because the I lights that link boys carried were dim | and uncertain. More than one little town l required it's citizens to keep a light in | the front windows of their houses until a certain hour each night. New York | led the rest of the country by sixty years in street lighting an act of 1897 | requiring each seventh house down the street to hang out light on the end l of pole. Glass chimneys for lamps | came into use Yin the first part of the l eighteenth century. and Argans' circular wicks in the latter part Camphene, first made in 1s45 from the oils of tur- 1 pentne and alcohol, was a decided im- l provement on the older lights, though not I so widely used. When the Civil war made turpentine difficult commodity l to secure, many housewives went back | to whale oil and candles. Then the new l light-g giving oil, petroleum, came into 1 use and all other makeshifts were soon 1 forgotten
 i When the Drake well was drilled at i Titusville, Penn, in 1853, a new era i dawned in the home life of Americans,
 and Abraham Lincoln's pine knot light
 was known only in history. Petroleum
 had been used by the Indians as & medi- 1 cine, and was gathered by them from
 the streams blankets being spread on l the surface of the waters to absorb the l oil. oil wholesaled at dollar a gallon
 when F. L. Drake brought the ridicule ! of the country his head by boring 1 for oil When his well ran 1000 to l2O0 | gallons a day the price soon dropped 1 to dollar barrel. Today the pipe I lines carrying petroleum would more than encircle the globe. Last year the
 amount of Illuminating oil consumed in ! the United States was nearly barrel
 per head for all inhabitants. the con- sumption being more general in rural communities and small towns.
 Wnsor of England is generally known as ''the father of modern gas lighting"
 although a Belgian chemist previously
 discovered its properties. The latter
 came to grief. because the people, be-