Bedfordtimesregister.com - Pushing back dark not easy

While sitting on my front porch at the end of a hot day enjoying a bit of cool breeze, I saw the flashes of a firefly crossing the neighbor's lawn. The next day a fierce storm downed a tree nearby and put our house lights out for 36 hours.

Those two events reminded me that modern electric lighting is just a little over 100 years old. Fireflies have been around a lot longer than that.

Long ago, the only lights on Earth came from fires or insects, lightning, the sun, moon and a night sky full of stars. Everybody, no matter how rich or famous or powerful, young or old, pretty much went to sleep when the sun disappeared over the horizon.

I suppose one of the first and most useful uses of fire must have been for lighting. Imagine a primitive hunter huddled in a cave during a thunderstorm when lightning set a dead tree on fire. All of a sudden he could see in the dark. When the fire died out I wonder if he thought about finding a way to start a fire so he could see in the dark any time he wanted to.

That man could try to keep a natural fire going or he could try to start a new fire. Either choice must have been very difficult. If he tried to keep a fire going and it went out, what could he do about it? Wait for the next time lightning struck a tree? Borrow some fire from a neighbor? That was done regularly when people began living in communities. Gradually it became easier to start your own fire than to borrow some.

I have never tried it, but I've heard that a fire can be started by rubbing two sticks together. An easier way is a spark from a piece of flint striking steel. Old flintlock muskets were fired by such sparks. People also used tinder to catch sparks. Any highly flammable easily ignited substance can be used for tinder. Tinder boxes were like little fire starting kits including tinder, flint and steel. Cigarette lighters are made that way with a small piece of flint needing to be replaced when it wore out from the serrated steel wheel rubbing on it.

When it became easier to start a fire, one needed a way to control the flame so it would produce a steady light. There have been many kinds of lamps for that purpose. They burned oil or tallow or kerosene or carbide. Candles are a lot like oil lamps, but they burn solid wax and that makes them easier to use and safer to handle.

Lighting a lamp or candle became easier when the match was invented. The first matches lighted so easily they were dangerous which is why they were called lucifers. I recall seeing a man carrying a suitcase that rubbed against his pants and ignited the matches in his pocket. Wow. Some men could light a match with the flick of a fingernail or by a quick swipe across a pantleg. Some will ignite only when struck against a chemically treated surface and are advertised as safety matches.

Until fairly recently, all lighting came from an open flame until the electric light bulb was perfected using a tungsten filament. Electricity was used before that in the electric arc light. The very first arc lights were installed in Cleveland for street lighting. Before that, there were gas lights and lamplighters were hired to turn the gas on and off every evening and morning.

In recent times there have been neon lights, mercury lamps, sodium vapor lamps, florescent lights, and the new LED and CFL lamps.

When my mother was very young, one of her household chores was to clean the soot from the glass chimney of the dining room table's kerosene lamp. The base needed to be filled with coal oil (kerosene) and the wick had to be trimmed.

She often told us stories of fires caused by kerosene lamps being knocked over by kids fooling around or by adults putting a lamp too close to a curtain or blanket or some other flammable substance. The horrible Chicago fire is said to have been started when Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern.

One thing I have never been able to understand is the custom of using candles as lights on a Christmas tree. That seems to be so very foolish, dangerous and risky.

I am so used to turning a light on at any time just by flipping a switch or pushing a button. When the storm knocked out our power, it made me appreciate the difference between then and now. I had to resort to a flashlight and dangerous candles.

Scripture has it that God said, "Let there be light, and light was made." Something to think about.