Future lighting of interiors doubtless will provide an adequacy of lighting effects which will meet the respective requirements of various occasions.  A decorative scheme in which light and medium grays are employed produces an interior which is very sensitive to lighting effects.  To these light-and-shade effects colored light may add its charming effectiveness.  Not only are colored lighting effects able to add much to the beauty of the setting but they possess certain other powers.  Blue tints produce a “cold” effect and the yellow and orange tints a “warm” effect.  For example, a room will appear cooler in the summer when illuminated by means of bluish light and a practical application of this effect is in the theater which must attract audiences in the summer.  How tinted illuminants fit the spirit of an occasion or the mood of a room may be fully appreciated only through experiments, but these are so effective that the future of lighting will witness the application of the idea of “painting with light” to its fullest extent.  Color is demanded in other fields, and, considering its effectiveness and superiority in lighting, it will certainly be demanded in lighting when its potentiality becomes appreciated and readily utilized.

The expressiveness of light is always evident in a landscape.  On a sunny day the mood of a scene varies throughout the day and it grows more enticing and agreeable as the shadows lengthen toward evening.  The artist in painting a desert scene employs short harsh shadows if he desires to suggest the excessive heat.  These shadows suggest the relentless noonday sun.  The overcast sky is universally depressing and it has been found that on a sunny day most persons experience a slight depression when a cloud obscures the sun.  Nature’s lighting varies from moment to moment, from day to day, and from season to season.  It presents the extremes of variation in distributions of light from overcast to sunny days and in the latter cases the shadows are continually shifting with the sun’s altitude.  They are harshest at noon and gradually fade as they lengthen, until at sunset they disappear.  The colors of sunlit surfaces and of shadows vary from sunrise to sunset.  These are the fundamental variations in the lighting, but in the various scenes the lighting effects are further modified by clouds and by local conditions or environment.  The vast outdoors provides a fruitful field for the study of the expressiveness of light.

Having become convinced of this power of light, the lighting expert may turn to artificial light, which is so easily controlled in direction, distribution, and color, and draw upon its potentiality.  Not only is it easy to provide a lighting suitable to the mood or to the function of an interior but it is possible to obtain some variety in effect so that the lighting may always suit the occasion.  A study of nature’s lighting reveals one great principle, namely, variety.  Mankind demands variety