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.