Lampshade

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I asked in a deadened voice, taking the lighted lamp out of the binnacle, and raising it to his face.
“An ugly business.”
He had rather regular features; a good mouth; light eyes under somewhat heavy, dark eyebrows; a smooth, square forehead; no growth on his cheeks; a small, brown moustache, and a well-shaped, round chin. His expression was concentrated, meditative, under the inspecting light of the lamp I held up to his face; such as a man thinking hard in solitude might wear. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The bright lamp throws its rich golden splendor before us. The lamp is hid from us by the board which holds it. We stand behind in the dark, and watch the overhanging sprays of foliage making strange, grotesque shadows that move fantastically and sport and clutch and writhe like wanton fiends, while the solid banks of foliage themselves, reflected in the water below, look, one fancies, like hanging gardens in the weird world to which the water is but a window, and far, far down upon whose dusky floor the flowers are golden stars. ”

“ Cast your glance upon the interior of that immense diamond which we call a dioptric apparatus. The first object which strikes our attention is the lamp. As the fire which shone on the summit of the edifice was the soul of the pharos, so the lamp is the soul of the modern lighthouse. It was to this lamp Teulère first directed his attention, when he brought the catoptric system to perfection; and it was to this lamp that Arago and Fresnel addressed themselves when engaged, in their time, in improving the work of Teulère, Argand, and Borda. ”

“ The light of the lamp falls full upon her face and bust and hands, its shade leaving the rest of her person and almost the whole of the room in a soft shadow. She seems like a luminous figure evoked by the imagination from amid the vague shadows of fear. ”

“ Such a Lamp may serve all those who love to see light, as the Image of God; and may also be very available to those who by reason of continual Weakness are forced to lie much upon their Beds; which they may keep continually burning in their Bed-Chamber, not only because of its clear shining light, which doth neither smoak nor scent, like all other Combustible Lights, which scent is very prejudicial not only to the Sick, but also to the Healthy, because such smoaks offend the Heart and Brain. ”

“ Pay particular attention in cutting the wick quite smooth all round with a pair of lamp-scissors: if it is ragged or cut uneven, the light is flickering and uncertain—the wick should be very little raised when the lamp is first lighted, and turned higher up a few minutes after, and by slow degrees; if it is raised high at first, besides the risk of cracking not only the chimney of the lamp, but the shade [61] itself by a sudden flame; it never burns so bright again when turned down, as when slowly raised to the proper height. ”

“ We’ve got to get that lamp, you know.’
Mr. Femm lowered the candle and then made use of his other hand to stroke his long chin. He looked most fantastically bloodless, brittle. ‘Ah, yes, the lamp.’ He stared at Philip for a moment, then pushed his face forward a little. ‘Why should we bother about the lamp? We have been long enough away now. We can go back and say that we [185] cannot find it or that it was too heavy for us or that it is broken. They will have to believe us. Why should we trouble about the lamp?’ He spoke very softly but with even more precision than usual. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Out of this they found means to form an utensil which might serve for a lamp ; and they proposed to keep it constantly burning, with the fat of the animals they should kill. This was certainly the most rational scheme they could have thought of, for to be without a light in a climate where, during winter, darkness reigns for several months together, would have added much to their other calamities. Having therefore fashioned a kind of lamp, they filled it with rein-deer's fat, and stuck in it some twisted linen, shaped into a wick. ”

“ Yet in place of the sturdy bonfire of oak, or the huge iron cage full of coals, there is only a single lamp, whose rays are gathered by deep reflectors into a compact bundle of unwasted rays, and doubled and redoubled by rows of magnifying lenses until they can dart to the furthest horizon in a strong beam of steady light. ”

“ In diffused lighting, the lamp is covered, as by frosting, so that the rays of light are broken up and so scattered that no direct ray shines into the eyes, and there is no bright spot of light in the room. ”

“ Fanciful shapes are equally common in bronze. The standard form of handle consists of a ring for the forefinger and above it a kind of palmette for the thumb. Instead of the palmette is sometimes a crescent, no doubt in allusion to the moon. It would only be with bronze lamps that the cover protecting the flame from the wind could be used, as was the case out of doors in Athens. Such a lamp was in fact a lantern. Apparently it was to the lantern that the Greek word lampas, a torch, was first transferred, probably from a custom of having guards to protect the torches also. ”

“ No one having both brains and eyes will use it. A mild, or what artists term a cool light, with its consequent warm shadows, will do wonders for even an ill-furnished apartment. Never was a more lovely thought than that of the astral lamp. We mean, of course, the astral lamp proper—the lamp of Argand, with its original plain ground-glass shade, and its tempered and uniform moonlight rays. The cut-glass shade is a weak invention of the enemy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ An attractive design for a lamp-screen is shown in Fig. 1 A. When completed and backed with some pretty material it will be found a useful little affair to hang against the shade of a lamp to shield one’s eyes from the direct rays of a bright light.
To begin with, form a square of six inches, and at the top where the ends meet make a lap-joint by allowing one end to project over the other; then bind them together with some very fine wire—about the size that florists use. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The guide retires with his lamp to some mysterious lower region to produce shadows, and suddenly clouds sweep across the horizon, a storm is brewing, the stars are almost hidden, now they are out, utter darkness prevails, until we hear Mat stumbling about, a faint light is in the east, and a fine artificial sunrise, as he appears with his lamp. ”

“ The lamp beside my bed is a dull bit of bronze which does not poke itself into your sleepy eye, yet you know that it fits the need, not only for light but for satisfaction to the eyes after the light comes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Something looks staringly out of the darkness of the narrow corner, and when he brings the lamp near it springs back noiselessly and is transformed into a tall dark shadow which dances and laughs—so quaintly dances and laughs on the round beams of the walls. ”

“ The Nude rises haughtily and lights a lamp that looks very like a diminutive coffee-pot with a great flame in the nose of it. He hangs it against a beam already blackened with smoke to the peak of the roof. ”

“ The wick, which is composed of pulverized moss, is arranged along the front edge, and kept moistened by the oil that fills the lamp by tilting it forward—the lamp being delicately poised, with this end in view, upon three sticks driven into the snow beneath it. If there be two women, they occupy both ends of the bed, each with her lamp in front of her. Over each lamp is constructed a frame upon which to dry stockings that have become moistened by perspiration during the day's exercise, and from which depends the kettle for melting snow or ice to make water or to cook. ”

“ These lamps are globes of dead white glass in which the charcoal points are fixed. As soon as the sun sinks so low as to render the depths of the water obscure, the lamps are all lighted at the same moment by connecting the wires with the great electric apparatus on shore, and the whole subaqueous space is immediately illuminated as bright as day. The effect of the thousands of lamps hung in every direction is extremely beautiful. Every nook and cranny of the vast space glows with a marvellous brilliancy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Beginning with a shell for a lamp, a rush for a wick, and the fat of his game for oil, the first crude lamp was made, and while it shed but a feeble and flickering light, man ceased to go to sleep with the fowls and the beasts, and continued his labors and amusements into the night. ”

“ Among them was an extraordinarily ancient lamp in the shape of a transparent Japanese idol squatting cross-legged. The head consisted of a milky glass ball, and inside the lamp was a snake worked by clockwork and holding up the wick in its jaws. I was just about to open a high Gothic press to put it away when to my great horror I saw hanging in the press the dangling corpse of the Rev. Dr. Haselmayer. In my terror I almost let the lamp fall to the ground ”