The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-02
From the Pittsburg Post.

providing himself with artificial light. h. deed. his discovery of rne wonderful ele- ment fire. which doubtless occurred at very early period of his existence. could not fail to lead up thereto, for it would obviously be then but the easiest and most natural of all things that he should snatch a lighted brand from the flames which he had kindled to furnish him with substitute however feeble, for the glorious light of the sun when heavens s great luminary had sunk to rest.
 But here he may be said to have stood still, for he does not appear to have gone beyond the torch stage of his history for centuries afterward, and there are many savage races at the present day who even yet have advanced no further. h. deed, the progress made by man in re- spect of artificial light until the early part of this century was extraordinarily slow.
 Lamps, it Is true, were in general use among the Jews, Greeks and Romans and the other great nations of antiquity, and consisted for the most part of a simple vessel which held oil, grease or wax, from the surface of which projected wick
 The light obtained was of the feeblest description, the flame had no protection whatever from the wind, and the smell which arose could only have been rem dered endurable from the fact that "use is second nature.''
 The Greeks and Romans lavished much artistic excellence upon their lamps, mak- ing them with one wick, two wicks or 30 or 10 wicks. But they did not improve their construction one step, and to III practical intents and purposes they were no better than the saucer of tallow with l it's floating cotton, which may yet be found faring and futtering and smoking in some of the out-of-tne-way corners of our own far western land.
 The seven branched candlesticls placed in the sanctuary by Moses and those aft erward placed for the temple by Solomon were crystal glasses filled with oil and fixed upon the branches of the candle stick. while in private houses the lamps were generally placed on high stands which rested upon the ground.
 A very common form of light among the Jews-and which we are told by an- tiquaries Is more often than not intended by the word lamp in our Bibles-con- sisted of a sort of advanced torch made of iron or potter's earth, around which was wrapped old linen, which required 1 to be moistened from time to time from the vessel of oil carried by the person using it.
 This was the light used by Gideon and his 30 men. It was also the lamp of the | wise and foolish virgins, and will ex- plain the reference to oil in the parable.
 After the lamp came the candle, whose modest ray we are inclined to regard with a considerable amount of kindliness and esteem. But for the candle the dark ages of the world would have been dark in a still more literal sense than they already were, and to this humble servant civil ized mankind was indebted for the very best illuminant 1t possessed. certainly until the latter end of the eighteenth cen- turn and probably right up to the time of the invention of gas.
 The Romans possessed an inferior sort of candle which was made of strings of papyrus or rush dipped in pitch and sur rounded with wax. But candles in perfec- ton were not made until a much later period, and Alfred the Great of England has the credit of being the inventor f the horn shield for the flame. and conse- quently of the 'lant-horn."
 One proof of their value is the fact that previous to the invention of the Argand burner, in 1874. lamps had entirely fallen out of use a glance at the prints of that period being sufficient to con- vince one that candles reigned supreme not only in the houses of the people. but ir the churches and in all other places of public assembly.
 In such places there was an official whose sole duty 1t was to pass around armed with pair of snuffers and an ex- tinguisher on the end of a long stick, att tending to the requirements of such of his faring rods of talow or wax as needed his attention.
 Capdle-making at that time also formed a part of the education of every house. wife, and the candle box was to be found in every household
 In 1874. as we have stated, came M. Ar
 
 the first attack upon dominion of the candle, which could cause that luminary any alarm. Later on appeared an inven- tor with his coal gas, when the poor candle received a deadly thrust. and in later years a paraffin and petroleum put in their appearance and drove it, utterly routed. f'om the field.
 To refer, then, to Argands invention. He had already designed the circular burner, which. compelling the air to rush through the flame on both sides of the wick intensified it's powers of combustion, and so consumed the smoke which had hitherto expended itself in the atmos- phere, and which had formed perhaps the bete noir of all lamps then existing. In addition. the brilliancy of the flame was much increased; but he was not yet satisfied.
 It is said that he and his brother were sitting together one night, Argand with his head resting on his hand, pondering over a sheet of memoranda which lay on the table before him containing the re- suit of experiments connected with the subject which he had always at heart, whsn- suddenly the power of the little oil