TLDR
As has been seen, the lighting industry, as a public service, was born in London about a century ago and companies to serve the public were organized on the Continent shortly after. From this early beginning gas-light remained for a long time the only illuminant supplied by a public-service company. It has been seen that throughout the ages little advance was made in lighting until oil-lamps were improved by Argand in the eighteenth century. Candles and open-flame oil-lamps were in use when the Pyramids were built and these were common until the approach of the nineteenth century. In fact, several decades passed after the first gas-lighting was installed before this form of lighting began to displace the improved oil-lamps and candles. It was not until about 1850 that it began to invade the homes of the middle and poorer classes. During the first half of the nineteenth century the total light in an average home was less than is now obtained from a single light-source used in residences; still, the total cost of lighting a residence has decreased considerably. If the social and industrial activities of mankind are visualized for these various periods in parallel with the development of artificial lighting, a close relation is evident. Did artificial light advance merely hand in hand with science, invention, commerce, and industry, or did it illuminate the pathway?via the TL;DR App
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Written by matthewluckiesh | I was the Director of General Electric's Lighting Research Laboratory at its Nela Park National Lamps Works.