During the Reformation the ceremonial use of lights was greatly altered and was abolished in the Protestant churches as a relic of superstition and papal authority.  In the Lutheran churches ceremonial lights were largely retained, in the Church of England they have been subjected to many changes largely through the edicts of the rulers.  In the latter church many controversies were waged over ceremonial lights and their use has been among the indictments of a number of officials of the church in impeachment cases before the House of Commons.  Many uses of light in religious ceremonies were revived in cathedrals after the Restoration and they became wide-spread in England in the nineteenth century.  As late as 1889 the Archbishop of Canterbury ruled that certain ceremonial candles were lawful according to the Prayer-Book of Edward VI, but the whole question was left open and unsettled.

These byways of artificial light are complex and fascinating because their study leads into many channels and far into the obscurity of the childhood of the human race.  A glimpse of them is important in a survey of the influence of artificial light upon the progress of civilization because in these usages the innate and acquired impressiveness of light is encountered.  Although many ceremonial uses of light remain, it is doubtful if their significance and especially their origin are appreciated by most persons.  Nevertheless, no more interesting phase of artificial light is encountered than this, which reaches to the foundation of civilization.

V

OIL-LAMPS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

It will be noted that the light-sources throughout the early ages were flames, the result of burning material.  This principle of light-production has persisted until the present time, but in the latter part of the nineteenth century certain departures revolutionized artificial lighting.  However, it is not the intention to enter the modern period in this chapter except in following the progress of the oil-lamp through its period of scientific development.  The oil-lamp and the candle were the mainstays of artificial lighting throughout many centuries.  The fats and waxes which these light-sources burned were many but in the later centuries they were chiefly tallow, sperm-oil, spermaceti, lard-oil, olive-oil, colza-oil, bees-wax and vegetable waxes.  Those fuels which are not liquid are melted to liquid form by the heat of the flame before they are actually consumed.  The candle is of the latter type and despite its present lowly place and its primitive character, it is really an ingenious device.  Its fuel remains conveniently solid so that it is readily shipped and stored; there is nothing to spill or to break beyond easy repair; but when it is lighted the heat of its flame melts the solid fuel and thus it becomes an “oil-lamp.”  Animal and vegetable oils were mainly used until the middle of the nineteenth century, when petroleum was produced in sufficient quantities to introduce mineral oils.  This marked the beginning of an era of developments in oil-lamps, but these were generally the natural offspring of early developments by Ami Argand.