By Joshua Glenn
Sunday, July 11, 2010; B01
BRILLIANT
The Evolution of Artificial Light
By Jane Brox
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 360 pp. $25
Until the 18th century, night was an impenetrable abyss. Tallow candles, made of rendered animal fat, barely lightened the darkness. The workday was tied to the sun; once you could no longer see your work, labor stopped. Then tallow candles began to be replaced by whale spermaceti candles, which were twice as brilliant, and by lamps that burned cheap and abundant whale oil. Small wonder that this era was later dubbed the Age of Enlightenment.
Robert Louis Stevenson likened gaslight, which by the 1820s was supplied to London via several hundred miles of underground mains, to the work of Prometheus. A few decades later, around the time that Russia's Paul Jablochkoff was making major improvements to the arc lamp -- the first electric light -- Ralph Waldo Emerson extolled electric lights for banishing the shadows created by "the flame of oil, which contented you before." Artificial light, it seemed, was progress made visible.
But, Jane Brox asks, at what cost? Though she celebrates human ingenuity and technical advances in "Brilliant," her history of artificial light, Brox also presents damning evidence that in our millennia-long quest for ever more and brighter light, we've despoiled the natural world, abandoned our self-sufficiency and trained ourselves to sleep and dream less while working more. It's time, Brox urges, to "think rationally about light and what it means to us." Yes, the history of artificial light has its dark side, for those who aren't too dazzled to detect it.
Unlike the compact fluorescent light bulb, about which the author rhapsodizes at one point, "Brilliant" isn't very efficient. For example, it's concerned at least as much with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Northeast Blackout of 1965 as it is with what we might call the dialectic of artificial enlightenment. Yet like Edison's incandescent bulb, which has become the cartoonist's symbol of bright ideas, Brox's history is warm and illuminating.
What artificial light has signified to us, according to Brox's analysis, is the Enlightenment's promise of liberty and equality. But in reality, the wealthy and powerful have always acquired new kinds of light first and enjoyed a disproportionate share of their splendor. The advent of new lighting in the 19th century, Brox notes, "stratified society and intensified the separateness of countryside and city, household and industry." As late as 1906, when electricity was not yet considered essential for everyone, electric lighting was available only to businesses, manufacturers and wealthy homeowners. Until the New Deal, everyone else was consigned to darkness.
But perhaps, Brox argues, that wasn't such a bad thing. Before the advances in lamp technology, the nights were long, and sleep was divided by one or more intervals of semiconscious wakefulness when men and women shrouded in gloom might talk, make love, pray, reflect, even visit others. Sounds delightful, doesn't it?
Alas, thanks to improvements in artificial lighting, free-running sleep long ago went the way of handlooms. Working hours, meanwhile, have grown longer. The God of Utility, in Baudelaire's pejorative phrase, demanded brighter illumination, and he received it. Gas lighting was first embraced by factories; a century later, Edison's light bulb helped establish the three-shift day and the final erasure of natural time in the workplace.
If illumination-disadvantaged people were out of sight and out of mind, so too were the negative effects of artificial lighting on the natural world. In the early 19th century, the demand for whale oil led to the near-extinction of sperm whales. Gaslight, a byproduct of the distillation of bituminous coal into coke, required dangerous mining. Kerosene produced from petroleum encouraged oil drilling, the costs of which we're still trying to calculate in lost troops abroad and ruined habitat at home.
Part of the allure of electric lighting, Brox recounts, was its supposed cleanliness: "All the attendant work and grime of production existed somewhere out of sight." Yet, until the energy crisis of the early 1970s, few realized how essential coal mining and oil drilling had become to the energy grids of industrialized countries.
Exploitation of fossil fuels won't be possible forever, yet visions of a "smart grid" and organic light-emitting diodes won't fix our fundamental energy problems. Why? Because the more modern we've become, the more we've taken our lighting and its power sources on faith. Before gaslight and then electrical lighting, Brox writes, "light -- however meager -- had always been one's own and self-contained within each dwelling." In the wake of the gasworks and the generating plant, though, light became something "interconnected, contingent, and intricate. . . . It marked the beginning of the way we are now, with our nets of voices, signs and pulses, with power subject to flickers and loss we can't do anything about." The 21st century has the potential to become a new Dark Age -- except we're all less self-reliant now.
As I write this, Concord, Mass., is taking down hundreds of streetlights on side streets and rural roads to cut costs while reducing its carbon footprint. Emerson, the sage of Concord, who compared the evolution of lighting with moral progress, might be dismayed to learn that those who wish to keep a light shining in the darkness have the opportunity to do so -- if they can afford $17 per streetlight, per month.
Joshua Glenn is co-curator of the Web site Significant Objects and co-editor of HiLobrow.com, which Time recently named one of the best blogs of 2010.
用光照射人工光改變了我們生活的方式
由約書亞葛籣
星期日 2010 年 7 月 11 日 ；B01
輝煌
人工光源的演變
由簡 Brox
霍頓米夫林哈考特。360 頁 25 元
直到 18 世紀，晚上是密不透風的深淵。牛油蠟燭，所呈現的動物脂肪，幾乎照亮黑暗。工作日被綁太陽 ；一旦你不再能見到你的工作，停止了勞動。然後牛油蠟燭開始被替換由鯨魚鯨蠟蠟燭，是輝煌的兩倍，和燒了廉價和豐富鯨油的燈。難怪這個時代後來被稱為啟示的年齡。
羅伯特 · 路易士 · 斯蒂文森煤氣燈，其中由 1820s年提供了到倫敦通過幾百英里的地下喉管，比作普羅米修士的工作。幾十年後，大約在俄羅斯的保羅 Jablochkoff 正在弧燈 — — 第一次電光源 — — 的重大改善的時間拉爾夫 · 沃爾多 · 愛默生讚美電燈驅逐陰影創建的"油，滿足你之前的火焰"。人造光，它似乎，是取得明顯的進展。
但是，簡 Brox 詢問，代價呢？雖然她慶祝人類智慧和技術進步的"輝煌"，她的歷史的人工光，Brox 還介紹了該死的證據過更多的和更亮的光我們幾千年來長期追求，我們已經掠奪自然世界拋棄了我們自給自足和訓練自己睡覺和做夢少工作多時。是的時候，Brox 敦促，"認為理性關於光和它對我們意味著什麼"。是的歷史的人造光有其黑暗的一面，為那些不太眼花繚亂，檢測不到。
不與緊湊型螢光燈管，哪個作者 rhapsodizes 在一個點，不同的是"輝煌"是效率很高。例如，它已關注至少一樣多與 1893年世界的哥倫比亞博覽會、 田納西流域管理局和 1965 年東北地區停電，這一點與我們稱之為人工啟示的辯證性。然而像愛迪生的白熾燈泡，已成為漫畫家的符號的明亮的想法，Brox 的歷史是溫暖而富有啟發性。
什麼人造光已給我們，表示根據 Brox 的分析，是自由和平等的啟示的承諾。但在現實中，富裕和強大有總是首先獲得新種光和享有其輝煌的不成比例。來臨的新照明在 19 世紀，Brox 注意到，「 分層社會，加強農村和城市、 家用和工業的獨特性。1906 年，當電力尚不認為每個人都必不可少，作為晚電力照明就是只向企業、 廠商和富裕業主可用。直到新交易，其他人都被遺忘到黑暗。
但也許，Brox 爭辯說，這不是一件壞事。之前燈技術的進步，夜晚很長，和睡眠被劃分了由一個或更多時間間隔半意識覺醒狀態時男性和女性籠罩在陰霾可能說話、 讓愛，祈禱，反映，甚至訪問其他人。聽起來令人愉快，不是嗎？
唉，改良人工照明，免費運行睡眠很久以前去的產地的方式。工作時間，同時，變得更長。實用神在波德賴爾的貶義的詞，要求更明亮的照明，和他接受了它。氣體照明設備是第一次擁抱的工廠 ；一個世紀以後，愛迪生的燈泡説明建立了三班一天和最後的擦除的自然時間在工作場所。
如果光照弱勢人們視線，不去想，所以也是對自然世界的人工照明的負面影響。在 19 世紀初，對鯨油的需求導致了附近滅絕的抹香鯨。煤氣燈，成焦炭，煤瀝青的蒸餾的副產品所需危險挖掘。煤油生產從石油中鼓勵的石油鑽具，費用的我們仍要計算在失去的軍隊出國和毀棲息地在家裡。
電力照明，Brox 敘述的魅力之一就是其所謂的清潔： 所有的助理工作和生產的污垢存在某處不見了。"然而，直到 1970 年代初期的能源危機，很少有人意識到如何重要煤炭開採和石油鑽井已成為向工業化國家的能源網格。
化石燃料的開發不可能永遠，然而"智慧電網"和有機發光二極體的願景不會解決我們的基本能源問題。為什麼呢？因為我們已經變得更加現代、 更加我們已經將我們的照明和信仰及其動力源。在煤氣燈和之前然後電氣照明，Brox 寫道："光 — — 然而微薄 — — 一直是一個人的自己和自我包含在每個住宅內."在煤氣廠和電廠的之後，雖然，光成為什麼"相互聯繫、 特遣隊，和錯綜複雜。......它標誌我們現在用我們的聲音、 標誌和豆類，閃爍和損失我們不能做任何事的權力網的方式的開始"。21 世紀已成為一個新的黑暗時代 — — 除了我們現在都比較不能自力更生的潛力。
當我寫這，麻塞諸塞州康科特，扳倒數百個在一側的街道及農村道路上的路燈，同時減少其碳排放量削減成本。艾默生、 協和、 鼠尾草相比照明設備與道德進步的演變，可能是奸屍那些想要保留光在照耀在黑暗中的人有機會做所以--如果他們可以負擔每路燈，每月 17 元。
約書亞葛籣是 Web 網站的重要物件的聯合策展人和聯合編輯，HiLobrow.com，時間最近命名為 2010 年最佳博客之一。
2nd Review.
Towns and cities, before they became illuminated, were fearful places in the dark. The authorities mostly decided that anyone out after dark was up to no good and established curfews (from couvre-feu, cover the fire) which it was unwise to break. You were deemed to be a thief if a man, or a prostitute if a woman.Where curfews were more relaxed, blind people were hired to lead people back to their homes at night, on the grounds that they did not need light to navigate their local areas. Sometimes boys with torches were hired instead; it was luck of the draw whether they were affiliated to highwaymen or not.I certainly had not bothered to consider it much until I read this thoroughly engrossing and always well-, and sometimes beautifully written book. But for almost all human history, until at least the early 19th century (and then only in the most advanced cities and towns), nighttime meant darkness – real darkness. Your lights, if you were poor, were lamps powered by animal fat; or fragile rushes, which gave off a feeble light that lasted about an hour. If you lived in Shetland, you stuck the corpse of a petrel, abundantly rich in oils, onto a clay base and threaded a wick down its throat. (I had to read that bit two or three times before I could finally accept it as fact.)
Brox begins, hauntingly, at the Lascaux caves in south-western France, and she makes us marvel at the achievement of the artists who managed to create such beauty by what could only have been the most primitive lamps. (She returns to Lascaux a couple of hundred pages later, and also at the very end of the book; one might question how tangential the caves are to her story, but so what? This is a book that sheds light – a metaphor that I had hoped to resist. Forgive me.)
I had worried that once Brox's story got to the invention of the electric light bulb, things would become rather more plain sailing, and the story a little boring. But no. When we consider the electric light bulb, romantic notions we might have had about candles or lamps will be tested. I had once, in a mood of wistful primitivism, entertained the idea of using an oil lamp to read by, but now I know how dangerous they are, and how much of an immense faff it is to clean them, I have dropped the notion for ever.And candles aren't what they used to be: they're much, much better, and for most of their life most were difficult to make, and stank. The upside was that if, like the builders of the first Eddystone lighthouse, you got trapped for days in a storm, you could eat them.
Anyway, the relatively high price of this book is vitiated by the fact that pretty much every page has something that makes you go "wow", whether it is the quote from the New Yorker about walking through the moonlit city in the 1965 blackout ("the moonlight lay on the streets like thick snow, and we had a curious, persistent feeling that we were leaving footprints in it"); the news that electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla's skull was so sensitive that he could feel pressure when walking under bridges; or the 1963 experiment by the French geologist Michel Siffre, who spent two months in a cave in order to see how his body clock was affected (it was OK; he nearly lost his mind, though).
One or two reviews have mentioned things that the book overlooks – such as the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900, which gloried in the new light source – and I have a nagging feeling that I could think of something else that's missing, but cannot put my finger on it. Not that this is important, with writing of this quality. On the edging out of gas lamps by steady electric ones: "That flickering was a link to the light at the beginning of human time: the kerosene lamp was the apotheosis of the tallow cupped in limestone at Lascaux, the last self-tended flame."
城鎮和城市，他們成為了照亮之前，有可怕的名額，在黑暗中。當局主要決定任何人天黑以後是最不好和既定的宵禁 （從 couvre-feu，覆蓋火），它是不明智打破。你被認為是一個小偷，如果一個人，或者如果一個女人是妓女。在宵禁哪裡更輕鬆，失明人士被雇來導致人回到自己的家園在晚上，，理由是他們不需要光導航他們當地的地區。有時火把的小男孩被雇傭相反 ；無論他們附屬於大盜，或不是抽籤的運氣。我當然有不費心去考慮它多直到我讀了本書徹底著迷和總是好-，，有時候文字優美。但是，幾乎所有的人類歷史，直到至少 19 世紀初 (，然後只在最先進的城市和城鎮)，夜間意味著黑暗 — — 真正的黑暗。你的燈，如果你很窮，是由動物脂肪; 供電燈或脆弱的奔，長出了持續了大約一個小時的微弱光線。如果你住在設德蘭群島，你被困的一隻海燕，十分清楚地豐富的油，到一個粘土基地上的屍體和螺紋燈芯它的喉嚨。(我有讀之前我終於能接受它作為事實的兩個或三個時代的那位)。
從 Brox 開始，讓人流連忘返，斯科洞穴在法國西南部，和她讓我們驚歎于設法通過什麼只能是最原始的燈來創建這種美麗的演出者的成就。(她幾個幾百頁後，返回到斯科和也 ； 這本書的最後一個可能質疑如何切向洞穴到她的故事，但那又怎樣？這是一本書，揭示了 — — 我曾希望能抵抗一個隱喻。原諒我)。
我曾擔心，一旦到的電燈泡發明了 Brox 的故事，事情會變得較為普通的帆船，並有點無聊的故事。但沒有。當我們考慮電光源燈泡時，將考驗我們或許曾蠟燭或燈的浪漫想法。我有一次，渴望原始主義的氣氛中的想法使用一盞油燈來閱讀的但現在我知道他們是多麼的危險，和巨大浪費時間的多少是他們清除掉，永遠已下降這一概念。蠟燭是不是他們用來將： 他們是好很多，而且他們生命的大部分很難使，、 臭。好處是，如果像第一次的埃迪斯通燈塔的建設者，你被困在一場暴風雨中天，你可以吃它們。
總之，這本書的價格相對較高囊括事實幾乎每一頁有一樣東西讓你去"哇"，無論是從紐約關於步行穿過 1965年停電在月光下城市報價 ("月光下躺在街道喜歡厚厚的雪，和我們有好奇，持久性的感覺我們離開在它的腳印"） ；消息那電氣先鋒尼古拉 · 特斯拉的頭骨是如此敏感他能感覺到壓力時走下橋 ；或由法國地質學家蜜雪兒 · 佛伊，在一個山洞裡呆兩個月，看看他的身體時鐘如何影響 1963年實驗 （這是確定 ； 他幾乎失去了他的頭腦，雖然）
一個或兩個評論提到的這本書可以俯瞰 — — 如巴黎史事的 1900 年，因在新光源 — — 而洋洋得意的事情和我有一種揮之不去感覺，我能想到的東西丟失，但不能把我的手指放在它。不，這是重要的是，這種品質的寫作。上氣步出燈由穩態電動部分："閃爍在人的時間開始時是一個連結到光： 盞煤油燈被神化的石灰石在斯科，最後自我照料火焰托著牛油。"
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