A Retrospective of Artificial Lighting from Ancient Times to the Present Day

Abstract

A retrospective of the origin and development of light sources is given depending on the history of human development and the creation of fundamental sciences: mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering. Four stages of development and creation of artificial light sources in buildings and structures are proposed. A detailed description of the pre-electric period (regular use of fire by the man; the Bronze Age, the middle Ages and modernity) is presented. The second period begins with the opening of the voltaic arc, which can be called the beginning of the electric period. Illustrations of each discovery with lighting of rooms and buildings of the corresponding period are presented. The period of inventions, which led to the beginning of the third, gas lighting period, is described. This period includes, among other things, the combined use of gas lighting devices with electric lighting and combined gas-electric lighting. The fourth period begins at the beginning of the third millennium and continues to the present. During this period new alternative lighting sources appear along with incandescent lamps and gas-electric sources. Lighting engineering is becoming an independent branch of science and is being studied in all universities of our country, which increases the rate of appearance of new inventions and types of calculation. There are such lighting sources as fluorescent and LED lamps and fixtures. At the end of the article, the opinions of scientists on the prospects for the development of artificial lighting according to various criteria are presented. The article is provided with a large number of illustrations for all stages of development.