The price of light, once “too precious to use,” has over the years “fallen by a factor of 500,000.” Interesting about all this is that the flickering candles of the past that few could afford were really messy. And quite unlike the scent and mood-enhancing ones of today, the burning candles of long ago emitted a rather offensive odor.
Importantly, a candle of today “gives off 13 lumens” of light while a typical modern lightbulb “is almost a hundred times as bright as that.” As for light achieved with burning wood, “a hard week's worth” of gathering and chopping it for ten hours a day over six days would have produced the equivalent of “one modern lightbulb shining for just fifty-four minutes.”
Read Full Article »