The Jasper news. [volume] (Jasper, Missouri) 1898-1924, 1922-03-30
ROO

IES<RS<Au its development prim-
I04&3esl3 tive man realized a
need for something
which would enable him to finish the
task arrested by darkness OF that
need artificial illumination was born.
All through the ages they have come
together, civilization and lighting.
Every forward step in the progress Of
culture has been marked by an adj
vance in illumination. The way to our
civilization of today lies parallel to
The way to better light.
A stick from the fire was no doubt
the first lighting unit, for when man
in the earliest ages made nocturnal
excursions into the surrounding gloom
and needed illumination, he snatched
up piece Of burning wood from the
campfire. Yet there is plenty of evil
dence that crude forms of Oil-lamps
came into use long before history was
begun. Shells and hollow stones even
the skulls of animals, were filled with
oil, extracted from olives, nuts or
vegetables, and this oil, burning with
out a wick, furnished feeble, flicker
ing light accompanied by an unpleas-
ant odor.
In the course of time some one
thought Of wick, and the earliest
form Of this improvement in illumina-
ton was a floating wick of moss or
fiber. In the Orkney islands the
stormy petrol, with wick in its bill
is used as candle today. The car
cass Of an oil fish is similarly used in
Alaska Candles were preceded by
splints, but both were used during the
same period Gas illumination was the
next step, appearing less than CEN
fury before the electric lamp proved
commercially successful.
In the ruins of Fara, Babylonia,
5000 Is. c., was found the earliest
stone lamp of which there is any
record. This was merely a crude
saucer-shaped affair, about four inches
I'm diameter, cut from alabaster. An
Improvement over the stone lamp was
the pottery lamp, which could be more
easily shaped, and specimens Of around
300 3. c., have been found. A form
called the virgins lamp" used in
Bible times consisted of q small hollow
vessel, with a opening in the top for the
wick, which could be carried In the
hand. Within the next half century,
about 200 A. D., these pottery lamps
had been greatly improved In appear
ance, for by then they had begun to as
sumo regular forms, with handles
and some attempt at decoration. Two
hundred years later bronze lamps
made their appearance. A modifica
ton of this type, known as the Flor
entine lamp, which could be suspended
by chains, followed a few hundred
years later.
In the early part OF the fifteenth
century, about the time that Columbus
was discovering the Americas, the
Venetian stand lamp was wldel.
used in the Mediterranean coun
tries of Europe. Its graceful an(
artistic utility is characteristic Of thu
Renaissance during which 1t was il
vogue.
The Flemish oil lamp. 1000 A. d.
forms as sharp a contrast to the vene
tian lamp as does the Reformation
period, of which the former was de
VelOpment, to the Renaissance periot
of the latter Lamps of this type ma!
still be found in use among the poore
classes of continental Europe.
The candle is really form OF OF
lamp in which the oil or grease II
solid form is melted by the flame a
1t is used 1t was formerly made from
animal fats. but is now made of wa,
from berries and paraflin. Whale Of
was the chief Illuminating oil for man,
years. Benjamin Franklin discovers
that two wicks gave more than twic
the light of one, and this led to tn
Franklin dOuble-burners. Camphene,
patent nuid used about 1850. was |