ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN PHOTOGRAPHY
Many other instances could be cited in which artificial light is very closely associated with the cost of living. Overseas shipment of fruit from the Canadian Northwest is responsible for a decided innovation in fruit-picking. In searching for a cause of rotting during shipment it was finally concluded that the temperature at the time of picking was the controlling factor. As a consequence, daytime was considered undesirable for picking and an electric company supplied electric lighting for the orchards in order that the picking might be done during the cool of night. This change is said to have remedied the situation. Cases of threshing and other agricultural operations being carried on at night are becoming more numerous. These are just the beginnings of artificial light in a new field or in a new relation to civilization. Its economic value has been demonstrated in the ordinary fields of lighting and these new applications are merely the initial skirmishes which precede the conquest of new territory. The modern illuminants have been developed so recently that the new possibilities have not yet been established. However, artificial light is already a factor on the side of the people in the struggle against the increasing cost of living, and its future in this direction is still more promising.
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ARTIFICIAL LIGHT AND CHEMISTRY
Some one in an early century was the first to notice that the sun's rays tanned the skin, and this unknown individual made the initial discovery in what is now an extensive branch of science known as photo-chemistry. The fading of dyes, the bleaching of textiles, the darkening of silver salts, the synthesis and decomposition of compounds are common examples of chemical reactions induced by light. There are thousands of other examples of the chemical effects of light some of which have been utilized by mankind. Others await the development of more efficient light-sources emitting greater quantities of active rays, and many still remain interesting scientific facts without any apparent practical applications at the present time. Visible and ultra-violet rays are the radiations almost entirely responsible for photochemical reactions, but the most active of these are the blue, violet, and ultra-violet rays. These are often designated chemical or actinic rays in order to distinguish the group as a whole from other groups such as ultra-violet, visible, and infra-red. Light is a unique agent in chemical reactions because it is not a material substance. It neither contaminates nor leaves a residue. Although much information pertaining to photochemistry has been available for years, the absence of powerful light-sources emitting so-called chemical rays in large quantities inhibited the practical development of the science of photochemistry. Even to-day, with vast applications of light in this manner, mankind is only beginning to utilize its chemical powers.
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