Overview

With the use of gas and electricity, lighting systems in the nineteenth century provided more versatile illumination in both interior and exterior applications. These new lights extended the day at home, at work, and at play as people could perform more activities beyond the hours of light provided by the Sun. Artificial light supplanted natural light so that people increasingly relied on the technology of lighting in organizing their lives.

Background

At the beginning of the nineteenth century men like Humphry Davy (1778-1829), head of London's Royal Institution, demonstrated that an electrical current sent across a gap in a circuit created a bright white spark of light. Electrical technology was in its infancy at that time, and little practical application resulted...