Artificial Light: Its Influence upon CivilizationLuckiesh, Matthew
History
Artificial Light: Its Influence upon Civilization
Luckiesh, Matthew
Electric lighting; Lighting -- History
Light-baths containing incandescent filament lamps are also used. In
some cases the lamp, sometimes having a blue bulb, is merely contained
as a reflector and the light is applied locally as desired.
Light-cabinets are also used, but in these there is considerable effect
due to heat. The ultra-violet rays emitted by the small electric
filament lamps used in these cabinets are of very low intensity and the
bactericidal action of the light must be feeble. The glass bulbs do not
transmit the extreme ultra-violet rays responsible for the production of
ozone, or the middle ultra-violet rays which are effective in destroying
animal tissue. The cabinets contain from twenty to one hundred
incandescent filament lamps of the ordinary sizes, from 25 to 60 watts.
In the days of the carbon filament lamp the 16-candle-power lamp was
used. Certainly the heating effect has advantages in some cases over
other methods of heating. The light-rays penetrate the tissue and are
absorbed and transformed into heat. Other methods involve conduction of
heat from the hot air or other hot applications. Of course, it is also
contended that the light-rays are directly beneficial.
Light is also concentrated upon the body by means of lenses and mirrors.
For this purpose the sun, the arc, the quartz mercury-arc, and the
incandescent lamp have been used. Besides these, vacuum-tube discharges
and sparks have been utilized as sources for radiant energy and
"electrical" treatment. Roentgen rays and radium have also figured in
recent years in the treatment of disease.
The quartz mercury-arc has been extensively used in the past decade for
the treatment of skin diseases and there appears to be less uncertainty
about the efficacy of radiant energy for the treatment of surface
diseases than of others. Herod related that the Egyptians treated
patients by exposure to direct sunlight and throughout the centuries and
among all types of civilization sunlight has been recognized as having
certain valuable healing or purifying properties. Finsen in his early
experiments cured a case of lupus, a tuberculous skin disease, by means
of the visible and near ultra-violet rays in sunlight. He demonstrated
that these were the effective rays by using only the radiant energy
which passed through a water-cell made by using a convex lens for each
end of the cell and filling the intervening space with water. This was
really a lens made of glass and water. The glass absorbed the
ultra-violet rays of shorter wave-length and the water absorbed the
infra-red rays. Thus he was able to concentrate upon the diseased skin
radiant energy consisting of visible and near ultra-violet rays.
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