The first and most notable improvement in the oil-lamp was made by Argand in 1784.  Our nation was just organizing after its successful struggle for independence at the time when the production of light as a science was born.  Argand produced the tubular wick and contributed the greatest improvement by being the first to perform the apparently simple act of placing a glass chimney upon the lamp.  His burner consisted of two concentric metal tubes between which the wick was located.  The inner tube was open, so that air could reach the inner surface of the wick as well as the outer surface.  The lamp chimney not only protected the flame from drafts but also improved combustion by increasing the supply of air.  It rested upon a perforated flange below the burner.  If the glass chimney of a modern kerosene lamp be lifted, it will be noted that the flame flickers and smokes and that it becomes steady and smokeless when the chimney is replaced.  The advantages of such a chimney are obvious now, but Argand for his achievements is entitled to a place among the great men who have borne the torch of civilization.  He took the first step toward adequate artificial light and opened a new era in lighting.

The various improvements of the oil-lamp achieved by Argand combined to effect complete combustion, with the result that a steady, smokeless lamp of considerable luminous intensity was for the first time available.  Many developments followed, among which was a combination of reservoir and gravity feed which maintained the oil at a constant level.  In later lamps, upon the adoption of mineral oil, this was found unnecessary, perhaps owing to the construction of the wick and to the physical characteristics of the oil which favored capillary action in the wick.  However, the height of the oil in the reservoir of modern oil-lamps makes some difference in the amount of light emitted.

The Carcel lamp, which appeared in 1800, consisted of a double piston operated by clockwork.  This forced the oil through a tube to the burner.  Franchot invented the moderator lamp in 1836, which, because of its simplicity and efficiency soon superseded many other lamps designed for burning animal and vegetable oils.  The chief feature of the moderator lamp is a spiral spring which forces the oil upward through a vertical tube to the burner.  These are still used to some extent in France, but owing to the fact that “mechanical” lamps eventually were very generally replaced by more simple ones, it does not appear necessary to describe these complex mechanisms in detail.

When coal is distilled at moderate temperatures, volatile liquids are obtained.  These hydrocarbons, being inflammable, naturally attracted attention when first known, and in 1781 their use as fuel for lamps was suggested.  However, it was not until 1820 that the light oils obtained by distilling coal-tar, a by-product of the coal-gas industry which was then in its early stage of development, were burned to some