ABSTRACT

The more convenient method of striking a light by the use of flint, steel, and tinder probably originated after iron was first made, and soon became adopted by all civilised people, and by many savages who possessed iron. Small incandescent lamps are now used for examinations of the larynx and in dentistry, and a lamp has even been introduced into the stomach by which the condition of that organ can be examined. Candles are very largely used, being more portable and safer than most of the paraffin oil lamps. Even our lighthouses used only candles down to the early part of the nineteenth century. The Greek and Roman lamps, though in beautiful receptacles of bronze or silver, were exactly the same in principle as those of the lowest savage, and hardly better in light-giving power; and though various improvements in form were introduced, the first really important advance was made by the Argand burner.