Lengthening the Day

Book excerpt: People have always wanted light, and until the nineteenth century the only useful source of light was flame. Electricity brought clean light without flame, and sometimes even without much heat. This book is about the ways in which people have made light to lengthen their day. It explains howoil lamps, candles, and gas lights work and, drawing on writings of the time, shows how the available lights affected daily life. The principles of all the main types of electric lights now available are described. Alongside this technical history, quotations from Aristophanes to Jane Austen, fromJames Boswell to Kenneth Grahame, illustrate the social importance of lighting.