Jour: 13 novembre 2026

City of Light [and Lampshades] We are so used to electric power and having light at our fingertips that we forget that it is just a century old. In 1925 only half of all US and British homes had electricity. People used to fear going out on the dark streets at night. The streets were pitch black before the use of gas lamps, offering criminals and cutthroats dense cover.  Carrying a flaming torch or navigation by moonlight wasn’t too practical. The earliest portable lights were candles. Candle makers produced thousands of candles from tallow, beeswax or whatever else would burn for a few hours. Matchmakers were hard at work too. Households, churches, businesses, and public buildings relied on their products every evening after sunset. Public lighting by candle required a lamplighter to tour the town with a ladder in tow at dusk, lighting each of the lamps. Of course, when the lamps went out, the darkness was deep.  It was common practice up through the mid-17th century for…