Tibetan butter lamps use clarified yak butter as a fuel source.
People have been searching for better, cheaper and safer artificial light since prehistoric times. From early campfires to modern fluorescent and LED lighting, the path to modern artificial light was slow until about the time of the Industrial Revolution. Although electric lights are common in the west, some places, like Tibet and more remote parts of the Himalayas, often still use traditional oil or butter lamps for lighting.
The Need for Light
The first source of artificial light was also likely the first source of artificial heat. The use of fire for heat and cooking had an additional benefit of allowing early humans to see after sundown. This light offered some semblance of safety from animals, and allowed people to perform simple tasks at night that would have been impossible without the light of a fire.
Fire & Torches
Early artificial light was provided by fires. As the desire for portability developed, the torch developed. Torches are little more than a pole or stick with a flammable substance on top. That substance could be tar, a rag or cotton. In some cases, torches can be made using bamboo split at the top to hold naturally occurring flosses. Torches burned brightly, but are often short-lived.
Prehistoric Lamps
Early lamps have been found dating back over 15,000 years. Early prehistoric lamps were made from natural materials like rocks or shells. Sometimes horns were used. These early lamps were filled with animal fat or grease and were fitted with a fiber wick. Early lamps looked very much like modern tea candles, but used materials like shells instead of plastic or aluminum to hold the fuel. In modern candles, the fuel is a wax. In ancient lamps, it would have been fat.
Early Human-Made Lamps
Sumerian lamps from around 2600 B.C. were made from alabaster shells. Hand-fabricated lamps first appear in Palestine around the year 2000 B.C. The first recognizable human made oil lamps originated in Greece around 600 B.C. These lamps initially were flat, with indentations in a corner or side for a wick. These lamps look like they were modeled on the concept of earlier shell lamps, with the wick indentation as an improvement on nature.
Reservoir Oil Lamps & Candles
Over time, the body of early clay oil lamps closed to make a reservoir for the fuel supply. This allowed a lamp to burn longer because of a larger fuel supply. In some cases, lamps could have multiple wicks to create a brighter oil lamp. The reservoir could be fitted with a cover to prevent spillage and to keep insects and rodents out of the oil supply.
Candles are a variation on an oil lamp. Candles have been made from a variety of materials, including bee's wax, tallow and crystallized whale blubber. However, with the advent of paraffin wax, a petroleum byproduct that became available in the 1950s, candles became cheaper. With the introduction of stearic acid, the melting point of paraffin increased and the wax became harder. This allowed harder candles that didn't require containers.
Gas Lights
The first gas lights were demonstrated in London in 1735. Dr. John Clayton, a member of the Royal Society of London, captured coal gas in animal bladders and set it alight. William Murdoch developed a process to produce and store coal gas. By 1792, he was able to light his own home. A few years later, he was able to light the Manchester police station. By 1807, gas lights were installed on Pall Mall in London. Public gas lights were demonstrated both in France and the United States in the early 19th century. Baltimore was the first U.S. city to be lit using the new gas light technology.
Electric Lights
Each advancement in lighting increased portability, light output or safety. For example, torches allowed for portable fire-based lights. Oil lamps increased safety, torches from embers could set things alight. Gas lamps reduced fires caused by spilled or broken oil lamps. Gas lamps, however, could go out and fill a room with flammable coal or natural gas. Electric lights could provide artificial light using an energy source that didn't explode.
Early electric lights were first developed around 1810 when British chemist Humphrey Davy developed an electric arc lamp. High costs and limited life made this lamp more of a parlor trick than a realistic artificial light. English physicist Joseph Swan was the first to patent an incandescent lamp based on a filament in a partial vacuum. By 1878, Swan's incandescent lamps could last for just over 13 hours. The birth of modern electric lighting, however, was the result of Thomas Edison's research into extending the life of the incandescent lamp.
Tags: artificial light, have been, lights were, made from, able light, butter lamps