Light, Artificial

But granting the superiority of daylight, it is available at the best for no more than part of the library day. The thronged hours generally follow a winter twilight, and sometimes range far into the evening. What light is most cheery, the clearest, the healthiest, and the cheapest, for these long hours of use?

Oil. Very small libraries have little choice. They have to cling to the old-fashioned oil lamp. But they are not so unfortunate after all, for though filling and trimming and cleaning make trouble, no softer or better reading light has been invented; and swinging argands can give excellent diffused light, as many a country store will show. With a few such lamps and an open wood-fire, no such cosiness and cheer can be matched by a city library.

You can manage good home-made shades to moderate the glare, from home-made material—even from brown paper. It will be well to cling to oil until you have no time to attend to the lamps.

Gas. The next stage is acetylene gas, which can be had without a public plant, and furnishes a steady and brilliant light. After it, comes usually the regular gas stage of community development. If the gas plant is good, the light may be good too, though its fumes are often hard on lungs and books. If the plant is poor, better go back to oil.

Electricity. But the use of electricity has become so general all over the country, even in small towns, the light is so good, so safe, and considering the advantages, so cheap, that you are likely to arrive soon at the electrical stage, and remain in it permanently through the various steps of your growth. It is unnecessary in these days, to warn against defective installation; any architect should be able to arrange that; but watch it carefully, in planning and as the contractors put their wires in.

With either form of gas, or with electricity, the choosing and placing of lights will be one of the most important of your joint problems.

As far back as 1886, J. E. L. Pickering contributed a paper on the electric light, to The Library Chronicle[208] which is so sound that it is worth reading now—a generation later.

Location. In placing your lamps of all kinds, do not think first of symmetry or appearance, but try to find where the fewest bulbs, of the kind you determine to use, will bring the best light most directly on the places where it is wanted, with the smallest expense.

The kinds of illumination required are:—

Diffused. This is the general light in corridors and rooms, sufficient for moving about, usually got from chandeliers, sometimes from wall brackets.

Shelves and service desks. In usual systems, these are lighted, the desks by different kinds of fixed or hanging desk-lights, the shelves by a goose-neck protruding at the top, from the cornice between every two ranges.

Readers’. Usually lighted by rows of lights, shades down the center of the tables; or movable individual standards near the readers’ chairs, or by hanging lamps, six or eight feet from the floor.

In stacks. By bulbs at the ceiling of each desk, either hanging down, or doubled up.

Colors. As elsewhere noted, light colors in walls, ceilings, shelving and furniture, aid any system of lighting by reflection.

Switches. The location of switches is most important both for effectiveness and for economy.

Systems. I do not propose to discuss here all the systems of lighting or makes of lamps and fixtures, but I wish to record a very deliberate opinion as to the proper trend of experiments in library lighting.

Seeing a book advertised on “Practical Illumination,” by Cravath and Lansingh, I bought and have carefully looked it over. The seven pages it gives to libraries have not helped me at all, but I have found on other pages matter of interest. This, for instance:—

“The object of artificial illumination is to enable us to see things.”

“It is undoubtedly true that the eye is more comfortable when receiving a moderate amount of light from all directions, as it does in daylight, than when getting all its light from a bright page in a dark room.”

“The ceilings and walls, if light in color, have considerable value as reflectors, especially in small rooms.”

[On page 7 is a table of percentages of light reflected from different wall papers.]

The scientific discussions of forms of bulbs, the material of reflectors and the forms of shades, are very interesting. So is a series of “demonstration room tests,” especially No. 11,[209] showing a fine diffused light, thrown from a concealed bulb by a reflector at the ceiling.

“Even more important than the economic side of the subject is the disastrous effect on the eyes caused by numerous common artificial lighting arrangements.”

“The ruin of eyesight now common with artificial light is due to the fact that so few people understand the importance of the proper placing, reflecting, and shading of artificial lights.”

“In order not to injure or fatigue the eye, the following points should be avoided:—

“In the lighting of desks there are five principal requirements:—

“The three reflectors best suited to lighting the shelves of the library are the opal dome, the fluted opal cone, and the prismatic reflectors.”

Indirect lighting. This is defined thus: “The lamps themselves are not visible. They are placed in cup or vase or trough mirror-reflectors, from which the light is thrown up towards the ceiling, to be thence reflected down into the room.”

Systems of this kind as used in libraries for all service except in stacks—for diffused light, shelves, service desks, and readers’ tables—seem to me to be most like natural daylight, and therefore best unless too costly.

The Report of Oculists and Electricians on the Boston Schools,[210] reported against indirect lighting, believing that “the cost of current to secure a proper illumination would be prohibitive.” They added, however, that “No actual experiments were made with indirect lighting, as objections to its use seemed so obvious as to render them unnecessary.”

This was in 1907 (for schools) before the experiments in libraries described below had been made.

So far they seem successful. The Crerar Library has tried one for two years. Mr. Andrews says in his last report (1912): “The indirect system of lighting has been extended over the official catalogue and the offices. Longer experience confirms the opinion that under suitable conditions the system is the best for the prolonged use of artificial light, although this is not always recognized by persons accustomed to more concentrated illumination. For this reason it has been supplemented to some extent in this library by table-lights in the reading-rooms.” He writes me further, “It is undoubtedly more expensive, but it is in my opinion also much better.”

A similar system was installed in the John Hay Memorial Library at Brown University a year ago. Mr. Koopman writes me (Apr. 18, 1912):—

“Given rooms reasonably adapted for it I should call it the ideal library system.

“In our high reading-room [twenty-eight feet high], the conditions are especially unfavorable owing to the deep panelling of the ceiling. But if I were to choose afresh I might still prefer our present system; I certainly should if I could have a flat ceiling [for maximum reflection of light]. But for rooms of twenty feet in height and under I do not see how for library purposes one could choose a different system; certainly most rooms in libraries come within that range.”

As the height of the ordinary room in a library need not be more than twelve or thirteen feet; or, if it has to correspond with two stack stories, 14 or 15 feet; Mr. Koopman’s commendation would hold for all library rooms, except lofty halls.

About the lighting of the lofty room, Mr. Charles A. Coolidge, architect of the John Hay Library, writes as follows:—

“I think the indirect method of lighting in the rooms where the ceilings are not high, is very successful. It is only in the main reading-room, where it made so many hanging fixtures, that I did not like the effect; it is also expensive, as they have to use so many more lights. It does not seem to me very cheerful there, and I think the effect would be better if we had two chandeliers in the room at appropriate places where they would give a general illumination, and would be high enough to keep the light out of one’s eyes.”

I hear that this system is also used in the new St. Louis Public Library building, but have no report as to its merits.

From these experiences, west and east, and from my own observations of other systems in very many libraries, I am prepared to recommend trial of indirect lighting; especially as encouragement of makers will undoubtedly induce them to remedy any faults and develop all merits. For diffused light it is enough, always and everywhere. For shelves, from top to bottom, it is enough. For staff desks and for readers with strong eyes, it is enough. Weak eyes, accustomed to concentrated light, may need more; hence I take it the extra Crerar lamps. New patents are already appearing. Mr. Andrews further says in his letter: “A combination of this method with the direct system, called ‘semi-indirect,’ is used in the City Club at Chicago.”

It is even possible that the expense of installation and operation may be reduced.

Fixtures. Have these plain and substantial. If you do not try some indirect system, but hold to direct lighting, do not surrender yourself to the first or the most insistent agent. Urge your architect to a deliberate study of lamps, their power, position, bulbs, and shading, and indeed all their appurtenances and fixtures.

Do not, in the first place, let the architect arrange the lamps for picturesque effect. If he can make the lights ideal for service and for readers, well and good; but get the utilitarian effect first; the artistic afterwards, if you can.

Again, do not accept too meekly the salesman’s or contractor’s or architect’s selection of shades and fixtures. Watch, inspect, read everywhere, and when you make up your mind clearly what is best for you, insist on getting it. But avoid especially “art fixtures.”

I have been especially warned not to use the ornamental chain pendant for chandeliers, like that shown after p. 14 of the above mentioned Report of Oculists. The slightest draft will twist them, and break the wires inside.

And for desk or table electric reading lamps, use the movable and self-adjusting kind, so that every reader can turn on his own light, and arrange its angle as he chooses.

In General. Very large libraries can perhaps economize by installing their own electric plants, but get them outside the building if possible, as the jar of the engines and their whir are disturbing. In a group of municipal or university buildings, the library can get its current from a common source.

L. B. Marks, 103 Park Avenue, New York, has written a paper on “The Design of Illumination in the New York Carnegie Libraries.”[211] In this he advises consulting a specialist in every new problem.

In fact, with the complexity of functions in a large library, the need increases of seeking the advice of specialists on many points;—heating, lighting, ventilation, stacks, fireproof vaults are subjects where neither the librarian or the architect may know all the latest phases of the subject, and really want skilled information.

Champneys[212] recommends that oil lamps be kept lighted at stations all over a library, lest sudden failure of the electric light plunge it into darkness.