Naturally, with the tremendous development of artificial light during the present age, a new profession has arisen.  The lighting expert is evolving to fill the needs.  He is studying the problems of producing and utilizing artificial illumination.  He deals with the physics of light-production.  His studies of utilization carry him into the vast fields of physiology and psychology.  His is a profession which eventually will lead into numerous highways and byways of enterprise, because the possibilities of lighting extend into all those activities which make their appeal to consciousness through the doorway of vision.  These possibilities are limited only by the boundaries of human endeavor and in the broadest sense extend even beyond them, for light is one of the most prominent agencies in the scheme of creation.  It contributes largely to the safety, the efficiency, and the happiness of civilized beings and beyond all it is a powerful civilizing agency.

II

THE ART OF MAKING FIRE

Scattered over the earth at the present time various stages of civilization are to be found, from the primitive savages to the most highly cultivated peoples.  Although it is possible that there are tribes of lowly beings on earth to-day unfamiliar with fire or ignorant of its uses, savages are generally able to make fire.  Thus the use of fire may serve the purpose of distinguishing human beings from the lower animals.  Surely the savage of to-day who is unable to kindle fire or who possesses a mind as yet insufficiently developed to realize its possibilities, is quite at the mercy of nature’s whims.  He lives merely by animal prowess and differs little in deeds and needs from the beasts of the jungle.  In this imaginary journey to the remote regions beyond the outskirts of civilization it soon becomes evident that the development of artificial light may be a fair measure of civilization.

In viewing the development of artificial light it is seen that preceding the modern electrical age, man depended universally upon burning material.  Obviously, the course of civilization has been highly complex and cannot be symbolized adequately by the branching tree.  From its obscure beginning far in the impenetrable fog of prehistoric times, it has branched here and there.  These various branches have been subjected to many different influences, with the result that some flourished and endured, some retrogressed, some died, some went to seed and fell to take root and to begin again the upward climb.  The ultimate result is the varied civilization of the present time, a study of which aids in penetrating the veil that obscures the ages of unrecorded writing.  Likewise, material relics of bygone ages supply some threads of the story of human progress and mythology aids in spanning the misty gap between the earliest ages of man and the period when historic writings were begun.  Throughout these various stages it becomes manifest that the development of artificial light is associated with the progress of mankind.