The average middle-class home is now lighted artificially for about $15.00 to $25.00 per year, with convenient light-sources which are available at all times. There is no item in the household budget which returns as much satisfaction, comfort, and happiness in proportion to its cost as artificial light. It is an artistic medium of great potentiality, and light in a narrow utilitarian sense is always a by-product of artistic lighting. The insignificant cost of modern lighting may be emphasized in many ways. The interest on the investment in a picture or a vase which cost $25.00 will usually cover the cost of operating any decorative lamp in the home. A great proportion of the investment in personal property in a home is chargeable to an attempt to beautify the surroundings. The interest on only a small portion of this investment will pay for artistic and utilitarian artificial lighting in the home. The cost of washing the windows of the average house may be as great as the cost of artificial lighting and is usually at least a large fraction of the latter. It would become monotonous to cite the various examples of the insignificant cost of artificial light and its high return to the user. The example of the home has been chosen because the reader may easily carry the analysis further. The industries where costs are analyzed are now looking upon adequate and proper lighting as an asset which brings in profits by increasing production, by decreasing spoilage, and by decreasing the liability of accidents.
Inasmuch as daylight saving became an issue during the recent war and is likely to remain a matter of concern, its history is interesting. One of the outstanding differences between primitive and civilized beings is their hours of activities. The former automatically adjusted themselves to daylight, but as civilization advanced, the span of activities began to extend more and more beyond the coming of darkness. Finally in many activities the work-day was extended to twenty-four hours. There can be no insurmountable objection to working at night with a proper arrangement of the periods of work; in fact, the cost of living would be greatly increased if the overhead charges represented by such items as machinery and buildings were allowed to be carried by the decreased products of a shortened period of production. There cannot be any basic objection to artificial lighting, because most factories, for example, may be better illuminated by artificial than by natural light.
Of course, the lag of comfortable temperature behind daylight is responsible to some extent for a natural shifting of the ordinary working-day somewhat behind the sun. The chill of dawn tends to keep mankind in bed and the cheer of artificial light and the period of recreation in the evening tends to keep the civilized races out of bed. There are powerful influences always at work and despite the desirable features of daylight-saving, mankind will always tend to lag. As years go by, doubtless it will be necessary to make the shift again and again. It seems certain that throughout the centuries thoughtful persons have seen the difficulty of rousing man from his warm bed in the early morning and have recognized a simple solution in turning the hands of the clock ahead. Among the earliest advocates of daylight saving during modern times, when it became important enough to be considered as an economic issue, was Benjamin Franklin. In 1784 he wrote a masterful serio-comic essay entitled "An Economical Project" which was published in the Journal of Paris. The article, which appeared in the form of a letter, began thus:
Messieurs: You often entertain us with accounts of new discoveries. Permit me to communicate to the public through your paper one that has lately been made by myself and which I conceive may be of great utility.
I was the other evening in a grand company where the new lamp of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced and much admired for its splendor; but a general inquiry was made whether the oil it consumed was not in exact proportion to the light it afforded, in which case there would be no saving in the use of it. No one present could satisfy us on that point, which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very desirable thing to lessen, if possible, the expense of lighting our apartments, when every other article of family expense was so much augmented. I was pleased to see this general concern for economy, for I love economy exceedingly.
I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the subject. An accidental sudden noise waked me about 6 in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light, and I imagined at first that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted the preceding evening to close the shutters.
I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but 6 o'clock; and, still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward, too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day till toward the end of June, and that at no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till 8 o'clock.
Your readers who, with me, have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was when they hear of his rising so early, and especially when I assure them that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result.
He then continues in the same vein to show that learned persons did not believe him and to point out the difficulties which the pioneer encounters. He brought out the vital point by showing that if he had not been awakened so early he would have slept six hours longer by the light of the sun and in exchange he would have lived six hours the following night by candle-light. He then mustered "the little arithmetic" he was master of and made some serious computations. He assumed as the basis of his computations that a hundred thousand families lived in Paris and each used a half-pound of candles nightly. He showed that between March 20th and September 20th, 64,000,000 pounds of wax and tallow could be saved, which was equivalent to $18,000,000.
After these serious computations he amusingly proposed the means for enforcing the daylight saving. Obviously, it was necessary to arouse the sluggards and his proposals included the use of cannons and bells. Besides, he proposed that each family be restricted to one pound of candles per week, that coaches would not be allowed to pass after sunset except those of physicians, etc., and that a tax be placed upon every window which had shutters. His closing paragraph was as follows:
For the great benefit of this discovery, thus freely communicated and bestowed by me on the public, I demand neither place, pension, exclusive privilege, nor any other regard whatever. I expect only to have the honor of it. And yet I know there are little, envious minds who will, as usual, deny me this and say that my invention was known to the ancients, and perhaps they may bring passages out of the old books in proof of it. I will not dispute with these people that the ancients knew not the sun would rise at certain hours; they possibly had, as we have, almanacs that predicted it; but it does not follow thence that they knew he gave light as soon as he rose. That is what I claim as my discovery. If the ancients knew it, it might have been long since forgotten; for it certainly was unknown to the moderns, at least to the Parisians, which to prove I need use but one plain simple argument. They are as well instructed, judicious and prudent a people as exist anywhere in the world, all professing, like myself, to be lovers of economy, and, for the many heavy taxes required from them by the necessities of the State have surely an abundant reason to be economical. I say it is impossible that so sensible a people, under such circumstances, should have lived so long by the smoky, unwholesome and enormously expensive light of candles, if they had really known that they might have had as much pure light of the sun for nothing.
Franklin's amusing letter had a serious aim, for in 1784 family expenses were much augmented and adequate lighting by means of candles was very costly in those days. However, conditions have changed enormously in the past hundred and thirty-five years. A great proportion of the population lives in the darker cities. The wheels of progress must be kept going continuously in order to curb the cost of living, which is constantly mounting higher owing to the addition of conveniences and luxuries. Furthermore, the cost of light has so diminished that it is not only a minor factor at present but in many cases is actually paying dividends in commerce and industry. It is paying dividends of another kind in the social and educational aspects of the home, library, church, and art museum. Daylight saving has much to commend it, but the cost of daylight and the value of artificial light are important considerations.
The cost of fuels for lighting purposes cannot be thoroughly compared throughout a span of years without regard to the fluctuating purchasing power of money, which would be too involved for consideration here. However, it is interesting to make a brief survey throughout the past century. From 1800 until 1845 whale-oil sold for about $.80 per gallon, but after this period it increased in value, owing apparently to its growing scarcity, until it reached a price of $1.75 per gallon in 1855. Fortunately, petroleum was discovered about this time, so that the oil-lamp did not become a luxury. From 1800 to 1850 tallow-candles sold at approximately 20 cents a pound. There being six candles to the pound, and inasmuch as each candle burned about seven hours, the light from a candle cost about 1/2 cent per hour. From 1850 to 1875 tallow-candles sold at an average price of approximately 25 cents a pound. It may be interesting to know that a large match emits about as much light as a burning candle and a so-called safety match about one third as much.
A candle-hour is the total amount of light emitted by a standard candle in one hour, and candle-hours in any case are obtained by multiplying the candle-power of the source by the hours of burning. In a similar manner, lumens output multiplied by hours of operation give the lumen-hours. A standard candle may be considered to emit an amount of light approximately equal to 10 lumens. A wax-candle will emit about as much light as a sperm candle but will consume about 10 per cent. less weight of material. A tallow candle will emit about the same amount of light with a consumption about 50 per cent. greater. The tallow-candle has disappeared from use.