Artificial Light: Its Influence upon CivilizationLuckiesh, Matthew
History
Artificial Light: Its Influence upon Civilization
Luckiesh, Matthew
Electric lighting; Lighting -- History
The average middle-class home is now lighted artificially for about
$15.00 to $25.00 per year, with convenient light-sources which are
available at all times. There is no item in the household budget which
returns as much satisfaction, comfort, and happiness in proportion to
its cost as artificial light. It is an artistic medium of great
potentiality, and light in a narrow utilitarian sense is always a
by-product of artistic lighting. The insignificant cost of modern
lighting may be emphasized in many ways. The interest on the investment
in a picture or a vase which cost $25.00 will usually cover the cost of
operating any decorative lamp in the home. A great proportion of the
investment in personal property in a home is chargeable to an attempt to
beautify the surroundings. The interest on only a small portion of this
investment will pay for artistic and utilitarian artificial lighting in
the home. The cost of washing the windows of the average house may be as
great as the cost of artificial lighting and is usually at least a large
fraction of the latter. It would become monotonous to cite the various
examples of the insignificant cost of artificial light and its high
return to the user. The example of the home has been chosen because the
reader may easily carry the analysis further. The industries where costs
are analyzed are now looking upon adequate and proper lighting as an
asset which brings in profits by increasing production, by decreasing
spoilage, and by decreasing the liability of accidents.
Inasmuch as daylight saving became an issue during the recent war and is
likely to remain a matter of concern, its history is interesting. One of
the outstanding differences between primitive and civilized beings is
their hours of activities. The former automatically adjusted themselves
to daylight, but as civilization advanced, the span of activities began
to extend more and more beyond the coming of darkness. Finally in many
activities the work-day was extended to twenty-four hours. There can be
no insurmountable objection to working at night with a proper
arrangement of the periods of work; in fact, the cost of living would
be greatly increased if the overhead charges represented by such items
as machinery and buildings were allowed to be carried by the decreased
products of a shortened period of production. There cannot be any basic
objection to artificial lighting, because most factories, for example,
may be better illuminated by artificial than by natural light.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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