How Man Made Day (1946)

Sunset the day is ending and a heavy Darkness falls upon the land this darkness that long for man has learned to make his own daylight in our time man-made daylight is at hand at the touch of a switch this was not always so when man began his conquest of the dark he had only fire fire which reased the heat while increasing the light thousands of years ago when man lived in caves fire was his most precious possession fire kept him warm protected him against wild beasts and helped him shaped stones into spearheads for hunting in following years man took his fire then learned that he could increase the light by burning single sticks called Kindle lights this was his first attempt to use fire for light Alone by the Middle Ages man had developed several different ways of lighting the indoors having discovered that wood with much pitch burned with a brighter flame than wood with only a little he soon began dipping his thicks into bowls of pitch he found also that melted sheep's fat vegetable oil or whale oil served just as well as pitch and many persons used to pour oil in into a bowl and set it a fire but burning oil causes smoke when the fuel is consumed too rapidly to get rid of the smoke people frequently used another kind of lighting one that fed only a little oil at a time to the flame this was accomplished by the wick we don't who discovered the use of the wick perhaps many men found for themselves that cloth when rubbed in oil or grease would burn brightly then from that idea came the thought of taking one or two strands of Grease soap cloth and using them as Tiny Kindle Lights by the Middle Ages man had conceived the process of taking these tiny strands putting one end in a bowl of oil and lighting the other this served well for the wick acted as a sort of plot in which the oil or melted fat Rose a little at a time until it reached the flame special WIS were made with dozens of little threads braided together this made the fuel burn more slowly and give off a much cleaner and brighter light the principle of the wick was employed in designing early lamps like this one which resembles a teapot the wick was led through a little spout so it could be pulled out easily as it burned down but teapot lamps were cumbersome and hard to carry around and oil was not easy for all people to get better ideas for using Wicks were developed probably the simplest of these was a wick laid in some melted fat and allowed to dry when the wick was lifted there was a simp candle a better candle could be made by dipping the wick into a bowl of melted fat holding it in the air until the fat had set and dipping it again and again these candles called dips were much better than the earlier Kindle lights the candle increased the light of the fire and reduced its heat thus by the end of the Middle Ages man had found these several ways of lighting the inside of his home but even as late as the 17th century the streets were still dark from Sunset until dawn lanterns usually with candles inside were used for walking at night toward the middle of the 18th century cities were beginning to light their streets at night Paris was the first city to install Street lighting and London the second the lights weren't very good but they were better than none at all and so man had begun to create artificial daylight both indoors and out but he could do no more toward increasing the light and decreasing the heat of fire until he had learned the nature of burning or combustion in a candle the wax melts and forms a little puddle around the wick through the wick the melted wax Rises to the flame the hot wax turns into colorless gas which collects around the wick outside the gas pocket combustion takes place when this gas which consists of carbon and hydrogen combines with the oxygen in the air much of the carbon however it does not combine with the oxygen at once but in the outer part of the flame it is heated sufficiently to Glow it is these glowing bits of carbon that give the light from the candle but when there are too many bits of carbon some of them do not become hot enough to Glow these actually dim the light one of the first lighting improvements that came from a better knowledge of combustion was this lamp with a tube likee Wick and a glass chimney these improvements allowed the air to get to the middle of the wick so that all the carbon particles would be heated enough to Glow this lamp is called an Argan burner after its Swiss inventor who found this means of making indoor light brighter and cooler another form of gas lamp these lamps used a new kind of fuel coal gas made around 150 years ago they were designed to permit the right quantity of air to mix with the gas but still as in the most primitive days man was using fire to create light the middle of the 19th century saw the beginning of a new era in the creation of man-made daylight when a piece of iron is heated for forging it turns first red and then white hot giving off intense Heat and light when this principle is applied to arc welding the light is so brilliant that the welder must take care to Shield his eyes working from this idea of light man turn sticks of coal and later hard carbon into brilliant carbon arcs the principle of these white hot carbon sticks was used by Thomas Edison when he fashion the incandescent electric light over 60 years ago instead of carbon sticks Edison us used a filament of charred cotton thread when he discovered glow man had taken his greatest stride toward turning night in today here was light Without fire sealed in a vacuum bulb the little filament gave off more light with less heat than any Source man had yet found these incandescent light bulbs were rapidly improved so that they diffused the light softening it and spreading it man had thus obtained an excellent controllable source of light but he did not stop there he added a knowledge of how light is reflected light from any Source travels outward in straight lines in every direction each position about the source is lighted equally the light is less bright the farther it goes away from the bulb but when a reflector is placed beneath the bulb some of the light rays strike the reflector and are directed upward notice that all the reflected rays follow about the same path this is one way man directs and brightens his light thus we can control our light in lamps headlights and indirect lighting applying this knowledge of reflection to his incandescent light bulbs man has been able to add interest as well as better lighting to his offices and homes but still the incandescent electric light giv gives off much more heat than it does light so a way has been found to create more light with reduced heat from glass tubes coated with chemicals or filled with gases which light up when electrically charged these light sources fluorescent and neon are different from any others because they are not the result of heating and our cities and we are still wor increasing knowledge and Ingenuity to produce cooler brighter M day