Read Online Brilliant by Jane Brox - Free Book Online

lamp technology had hardly changed, in part because not even the scientists of the time understood the nature of the flame they were gazing into at night. What would eventually bring about the first measurable increase in the brightness of lamps occurred a world away from the oil-slicked decks of whaling ships, in the laboratories of Europe.
    At the time of the French and American revolutions, scientists adhered to the belief that all matter contained phlogiston, a flammable substance that was imparted to the air during combustion. "So long as the air can receive this substance from the combustible matter so long the body will continue burning," noted Professor Samuel Williams, who lectured at Harvard at the time.
As soon as the Air is saturated and can receive no more of the Phlogiston, the combustion must cease for no more Phlogiston can escape or be thrown out from the burning body. And therefore when fresh air is admitted to receive Phlogiston, the combustion will again take place.—And hence are derived the phrases of
phlogisticated
and
dephlogisticated
air. By phlogisticated air is intended air which is charged or loaded with Phlogiston, and by dephlogisticated air is meant Air which is free from Phlogiston; or which does not contain this principle or element of inflammability.
    Quite a few scientists experimented with combustion in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, most notably Joseph Priestley in England and Antoine Lavoisier in France. Eventually, Priestley identified oxygen in air, although he continued to hold fast to the phlogiston theory. It was Lavoisier, working in Paris, who built on Priestley's understanding of oxygen and concluded that rather than imparting a substance to the air, burning materials were fueled by oxygen in the air.
    François-Pierre Ami Argand, a Swiss scientist who worked briefly in Lavoisier's laboratory, made use of his and Priestley's findings to create the first significant improvement in the lamp. The most essential component of Argand's design was a tubular wick, which he fed between two metal cylinders. Openings at the base of the cylinders allowed air to reach the flame from both inside and outside the wick. The increased oxygen created a more robust flame than in previous lamps, and it also burned at a higher temperature, making for a cleaner fire in which the carbon particles were almost completely consumed. An Argand lamp produced very little soot and smoke, and there was little need for snuffing. Later, Argand enclosed the wick in a chimney—perforated metal, then glass—which not only protected the light but also created an updraft that increased airflow to the flame. He also designed a mechanism for raising and lowering the wick. According to some accounts, his lamp shone more brightly than six tallow candles. Others claimed that if it was fed by spermaceti oil, it produced about ten times the illumination of a customary lamp, and the flame—rather than being the usual orange—was "very white, lively and almost dazzling, far better than the light of any lamp proposed before."
    This light born of experiment, of the investigations of a handful of men in private quarters, seemed so immediately bright that to some it was more than the human eye could bear. One account suggests that "as the light emitted by [these lamps] is frequently too vivid for weak or irritable eyes, we would recommend the use of a small screen, which should be proportionate to the disk of the flame, and be placed, at one side of the light, in order to shade it from the reader's eye, without excluding its effect from others, or darkening the room." And, after so many centuries of dreaming of more light, people did shield the flame, with mica, horn, and decorative glass. These were the first lampshades.
    The Argand lamp had its challenges. Though efficient, the large wick and increased oxygen required much more oil than previous lamps, which not only made the lamp costly to run