THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT
One great fundamental advantage that man has won over the other animals is that although by nature a diurnal animal he has made night almost equally subject to his dominion through the use of artificial light. He thus establishes an average day of sixteen or eighteen hours in place of the twelve-hour day within which his activities would otherwise be restricted. Of course this conquest of the night began at an early stage of the human development, since a certain familiarity with the uses of fire was attained long before man came out of the ages of savagery. But when the transition had been made from the primitive torch to the simplest type of lamp, there was for many centuries a cessation of progress in this direction, and it remained for comparatively recent generations to provide more efficient methods of lighting. Indeed, the culminating achievements are matters which make the most recent history. It is the purpose of the ensuing pages to narrate the story of the successive practical achievements through which man has been enabled virtually to turn night into day.