Lamppost

“ I have seen a grey blue sky at the earliest moment when street lamps were alight at all, and radiant against the light grey of its invisible and equal clouds an electric lamp has been reared: an electric lamp of cold white light, pure and keen, and armed with intense and splendid arrows that would pierce day itself. Light grey sky and thrilling lamp together make—or so it seems to me—one of the most beautiful sights that eyes can see—the most refined, most severe, and most exquisite. ”

“ Only, every lighthouse does not [80] employ the same kind of lamp. In one, we meet with the Carcel lamp, where the oil is elevated to the wick by a clock-work mechanism. In another, it is the Moderator, in which the same function is discharged by a heavy weight surrounding a roller. In others, whose range is limited, it is the Permanent-level lamp, where the reservoir of oil is placed by the side and on the level of the burner, which possesses the power of regulating the supply. ”

“ Thirty years ago electric lighting was not in vogue, and the system of street lamps was far less complete than at present, although the gas burned in them may not have been any worse. The lamps were much fewer and farther between, and the light which they emitted had a feeble, sickly aspect, and did not reach any distance into the moist and murky atmosphere. And so the night was dismal enough, and the few people upon the street were visible only as they passed directly beneath the lamps, or in front of lighted windows; seeming at other times like moving shadows against a black ground. ”

“ It is impossible to give any hard and fast rules as to what number must be employed in the illumination of any room, as a great deal depends upon the nature of the reflecting surfaces, such as the walls, ceilings, &c. As a rough guide, it may be stated that for every 100 sq. ft. of floor surface one 16 candle-power lamp placed about 8 ft. above the floor will give a dull illumination, two will give a good illumination and four will give a brilliant illumination. We generally judge of the nature of the illumination in a room by our ability to read comfortably in any position. ”

“ The lamp shone victoriously from the roof, and on Sunday evenings all the townsfolk often used to come to look upon and admire it. It was known all over the parish that our house was the first, after the parsonage, where the lamp had been used. After we had set the example, the magistrate bought a lamp like ours, but as he had never learned to light it, he was glad to sell it to the innkeeper, and the innkeeper has it still.
The poorer farmfolk, however, have not been able to get themselves lamps, but even now they do their long evening's work by the glare of a pare. ”

“ The lamps themselves are attached to some variety of ornamental fitting, or in many cases suspended by a simple pendant, consisting of an insulated double flexible wire attached at its upper end to a ceiling rose, and carrying at the lower end a shade and socket in which the lamp is placed. Lamps thus hung head downwards are disadvantageously used because their end-on candle-power is not generally more than 60% of their maximum candle-power. In interior lighting one of the great objects to be attained is uniformity of illumination with avoidance of harsh shadows. ”

“ As to these lights of London lamps, their beauty, which is so great, seems to depend almost entirely upon the sky. See them as they glow in the long unequal curves that follow the subtly misleading directions of the streets of London, and in all their brilliancy they make but a common show—pretty enough, but not beautiful. But let any lamp or line of lamps come into visible relation with the sky—any sky, whether a mysterious night-sky softly embrowned, or a night-sky swept pure by a west wind, or the most ordinary grey of any average evening—and the lamp has indescribable beauties. ”

“ It is securely fastened to the table, which in its turn is fastened to the floor, and the light is supplied by a small incandescent lamp within the chimney, but concealed by the shade. The visitor never imagines that it is an electric lamp, and naturally thinks that it would be impossible for a kerosene lamp to be inverted without disaster, so that this adds to the deception materially. ”

“ From an artistic point of view, one of the worst methods of lighting a room is by pendant lamps, collected in single centres in large numbers. The lights ought to be distributed in different portions of the room, and so shaded that the light is received only by reflection from surrounding objects. Ornamental effects are frequently produced by means of candle lamps in which a small incandescent lamp, imitating the flame of a candle, is placed upon a white porcelain tube as a holder, and these small units are distributed and arranged in electroliers and brackets. ”

“ We have constructed a very powerful reflecting lamp from a large sheet of tin, nearly two feet in height, curved round so as to form half a cylinder, six or eight inches in diameter; about eight inches from its base, we made a shelf to sustain the oil lamp, and a socket to contain the candle if we should be fortunate enough to have one, and behind this we arranged a couple of sixpenny trade looking-glasses at an angle of 90° with each other, and by the light thus thrown forward we were able to write or sketch with facility during many hours of the weary night. ”

“ Find out the general period of the room and the color scheme so the lamp will be in keeping with the surroundings and provide the proper accent. Impress the customer with the necessity of a lamp for every grouping, and with the importance of good lighting.
Oil lamps for farm use have been styled to resemble electric lamps and have enameled bases, diffused reflectors and attractive shades. All lamps regardless of the source of light have been materially improved and there is no need for any person to have poor lighting in the home today. ”

“ He filled it with lard-oil, I think, put a wick into the spout—he made a rude wick from a piece of twisted linen rag—and lighted it.
The lamp gave a dim and flickering light.
"I wish I could see it in the dark," I said, after a minute. "All right," he said; "just take it into that store-room," and he pointed to one of the doors, "shut the door, and you will find it as dark as Egypt."
I took the lamp, shielded it from the air with my hand, went into the store-room, and shut the door. It certainly was very dark in there, and the lamp gave hardly any light. ”

“ Floor lamps.—Several types of floor lamps are now in use—the lamp with diffusing bowl and fabric shade and the reflector lamp. Floor lamps show a tendency to shorten and new junior floor lamps are about 10 inches shorter than standard models. I. E. S. standards on floor lamps call for a base 58 inches in height, a reflector bowl 8 inches in diameter and an intensity of light 12 inches from the base, of 30 footcandles, when a 100-watt bulb is used. At 24 inches from the base a 100-watt bulb should give 10 footcandles of light intensity, according to these standards. ”

“ These lamps, filled with seal oil, are kept burning day and night till the festival is over. They are believed to light the shades on their return to [pg 052] their old home and back again to the land of the dead. If any one fails to put up a lamp in the clubhouse and to keep it burning, the shade whom he or she desires to honour could not find its way to the place and so would miss the feast. ”

“ This keeper remarked that the centre of the flame should be exactly opposite the centre of the reflectors, and that accordingly, if he was not careful to turn down his wicks in the morning, the sun falling on the reflectors on the south side of the building would set fire to them, like a burning-glass, in the coldest day, and he would look up at noon and see them all lighted! When your lamp is ready to give light, it is readiest to receive it, and the sun will light it. ”

“ The quality of light produced by an incandescent lamp is a gentler glow than that produced by the arc lamp, and in color more nearly resembles the light of gas or the oil lamp. The incandescent light speedily became for the home, hotel, hall, and limited covered area what the arc light became for the street and railway station, and, if anything, the former outstripped the latter in the extent and value of the industry it gave rise to. ”

“ This carbon electric light is so much disliked because, no doubt, it was generally seen under the glass and iron of a railway station. Seen with the sky it cannot but be seen to be most beautiful. The golden lights—electric lamps or gas lamps—have the beauty of fire, but the white lamp has the beauty of light. ”

“ It is a wintry evening, and everything is swathed in an unusually thick fog, in which the gas lamps in the streets show dimmer and dimmer as they recede in the distance. As the curtain goes up, a lamplighter is seen descending his ladder from a lamp-post, where he has just lit the lamp at the corner of the house. ”

“ Never set a lamp on the table so that it can be easily tipped over, or on a sewing-machine where it can be pushed off with the work. Turn the wick down half-way before blowing out the lamp, and when the lamp is not lighted keep the wick below the burner so that the oil will not be drawn up and spread over the outside of the lamp. Never carry a lighted lamp into a closet where clothing is hanging. ”

“ The design of the lamp was admirable in itself, but, in my opinion, what added much to the beauty of the whole, was that round the body of the crystal lamp there was carved in cataglyphic work a lively and pleasant battle of naked boys, mounted on little hobby-horses, with little whirligig lances and shields that seemed made of vine-branches with grapes on them; their postures generally were very different, and their childish strife and motions were so ingeniously expressed that art equalled nature in every proportion and action. ”

“ Given the photometric polar curves or illuminating-power curves of each arc taken outside the shade or globe, we can therefore draw a curve representing the resultant illumination on the horizontal surface. It is obvious that the higher the lamps are placed, the more uniform is the street surface illumination, but the less its average value; thus two 10-ampere arcs placed on masts 20 ft. above the road surface and 100 ft. apart will give a maximum illumination of about 1.1 and a minimum of about 0.15 candle-feet in the interspace (fig 12) . If the lamps are raised on 40-ft. ”

“ Decorative lamps use a variety of materials for bases such as china, glass, metal, pottery, terra cotta, wood, porcelain, and marble and employ ornate shades which in many instances greatly reduce the illuminating ability of the lamp. Several years ago, before the principles of lighting were given the consideration they are receiving today, lamps which were purely decorative were in much greater demand than they are at present. Today's decorating principles demand that lamps should be useful as well as decorative, and most lamps on the market conform to good standards of lighting. ”

“ In a room 20 x 20 feet, with furnishings of mahogany and green, broken up by bookcases and other furniture producing heavy shadows, it is estimated that twelve eight-candlepower lights are sufficient if worked into the frieze, and that a reading lamp of not less than thirty-two-candlepower be used as a drop light.
Assuming a room is 15 x 15 feet, and furnished in light tones, four eight-candlepower lamps are ample.
A living-room 20 x 25 feet, in light tones of color, requires two thirty-two-candlepower lights, centrally located, and about twelve eight-candlepower lights. ”

“ A lamp, invented by a very learned man, Sir Humphrey Davy, is used when there is a risk of fire-damp. It is closely surrounded with very fine wire-gauze, through which neither the flame of the candle nor the gas can pass, yet the light can get out almost as well as through the horn of a common lantern. ”

“ Fig. 309.—Square brass lamp, with four receptacles for wicks, one at each corner. Ornamented with dots of repoussé work, and suspended by an iron chain with long links and a hook.
Figs. 310 to 313.—Bronze lamp, apparently with gold in its composition. The basin patched and riveted with copper. The bands for suspension ornamented with straight line diaper pattern (Fig. 312) and broken guilloche pattern (Fig. 313) , united at top in a human figure (Fig. 311) , having the private parts strongly pronounced. ”

“ Although this was a brilliant summer’s morning, an old-fashioned reading lamp, called, I believe, a Victoria, having a nickel receptacle for oil at one side of the standard and a burner with a green glass shade upon the other, still shed its light upon the desk. ”

“ In 1776, the lamps, which before amounted to 2000, were increased to 3000, and a contract was entered into for lighting them at the rate of 30,000 florins. These lamps were invented by counsellor Sonnenfels, and amounted in 1779 to 3445. They are made of white glass, in a globular form, and have a covering of tin-plate, painted red on the outside and polished within. They are supported by lamp-irons, fixed in the houses at the height of fifteen feet from the earth. Each lantern is only sixteen paces distant from the other, so that the streets are completely illuminated. ”

“ We are standing today on the threshold of an entirely new era in lighting. New illuminants are being developed and new methods are being devised for applying light to meet the needs of modern living. Only a little over a third of a century has passed since the first incandescent lamp was invented by Thomas A. Edison, and the electrical industry has since made tremendous progress. ”

“ Combinations of a lamp and altar are not uncommon, especially at Rome and Naples. [2735] There are numerous examples from Pompeii and Herculaneum illustrating their use in private life, although lamps of clay are confined to the poorer houses or to domestic service. For their use in the bedchamber at night evidence is afforded by Martial and other writers. [2736] A rough classification of the existing terracotta lamps might be made by dividing them into— (1) those with knobs for hanging, (2) those with handles for carrying, (3) those without handles for placing on tables or brackets. ”