Brilliant: The Evolution Of Artificial Light

摘要

As Noted In these pages recently, the developed world takes light so much for granted that many of us rarely experience true darkness anymore. likernmany aspects of civilization, humanity's steady march to master the darkness, begun thousands of years ago, broke into a dead run near the end of the 19th century and has continued to accelerate like Usain Bolt into the 21st. But Brilliant does not make the mistake of trying to tell this story at the speed ofrnlight, opting instead to take a languorous, lamp-lit stroll through the entire history of artificial light. That story begins deep in the caves of Las-caux, France, the site of the famous Paleolithic paintings. Here, our Ice Age ancestors used the earliest known stone lamps-limestone cradling animal fat fitted with wicks of juniper or moss-to cast just enough weak light to create their abstract symbols and spectacular images of horses and bison.