Show THE TH LAMPS EVOLUTION 8 excavations av ANCIENT CIT IKS IT H 0 onkit R S SIS IS THOUSAND YEARS OLD oki was 1 a conch shell shelf and a twist of cotton western ingenuity devised the brass burner onil and Ru eulator Re eat lator fly air jans rii 1 D the oriental lamp Is the s saino me now ila IB it always lias 1114 born ii a simple dish of day clay bronze or glass filled with oil its wick Is it rap rag or a twist of cotton out one end of which la Is immersed lit in oil anti and ill the other oilier rests resist over tile edge of tile alio list dish to tn bo a lighted tills was tile lamp not only of ancient Baby babelonia babylonia lonia rind and 11 egypt agypt but also nago of tile 11 a brews I 1 greeks Konii ins and till ill other oilier parly early peoples lvin to this lay illy it is tile coin common lamp or of mesopotamia lit in saint Sop sophia lila the trout great of constantinople nople there la 14 no other method of illumination the first light with which primitive man brightened tho the darkness of night was the caknip fire tho the santa same with which ho he slightly roasted its his ment and warmed ills naked linked hody body at just what age tile iden idea of lighting by other moans first occurred to ailin Is 14 no longer known but tho the excavations tit nt tit alio babylonian Ills mya ilia ruin of ilia oldest known city lit in the world havo shown that it was lit in the iho v vry very ry long ago pura haps thousands of years yeara befu baturo 1500 11 C during the excavations csc far beneath a temple which was constructed lit ht that remote title dinong the ruins of earlier ares ages diere was found it a large coach shell about 8 hichel in length its exterior exter lor had liven worn smooth ly by constant handling find and it section nt lit its olivi ling find half 0 its elongated valve had lieen been cut away so SD that it formed a deep dei p dish terminating in it 11 long snout in its interior were slight traces of a thin black deposit at first tile hie use ase for this dish w was as intended was puzzling it was I 1 ek 4 later inter when it suddenly occurred ol t to nie 1110 that this sen shell was the prin five lamp the iho ancestor of the great ff family nily of lamps 41 sonic some time later while excavating tit nt a higher level lit in thu the heap heal where tile tho irac arlea i of 13 C throw threw ho file broken and discarded utensils of ilia tenial service thero appeared adiong tit tin dozens of baskets full fall of polished find cut stone itono several triangular objects which resembled the lie conch shell lit in shape one of alabaster baster was entire others were fragmentary Irlen yet their original forms could bo be restored they wert were the lamps hillips which camo caine into vogue voi it fitter after the colich had passed away or when it became so scarce that it was tic no longer lon er ern ein played liloy cd anti and stone stolle was substituted I 1 in I 1 its place although tho the conch was discarded its triangular form forin remained even to the tbt ini natural tural snout for tilt support of thu the wick which was waa reproduced in ill the stone stolle to tho the early babylonian tile pure almost transparent alabaster lamp was perfect in shape the next step lu in tho the evolution wits in its decoration in ill fud mu exter lur 7 wits engraved with reticulated or curved lines but n more important step in its decoration was when tl clr lamp maker conceived ill the idea of supporting the wick in a hole nt at the sharp sharl corner center one such example from the temple refuse beat beai terminated iu in it r N IX i LAMPS OF 01 LATI 31 babylonian AND PERIODS rams lipid head the HIP 1100 pl ond of tho wick projecting from froin it lit mouth after the alir discovery of ur hole for the lip div it wits was till nn easy step to cover lie ilia entire lamp with the exception of ui an 0 in the enter to malvo the oil nun ilius the lamp of classical times ort originated zina ted another interesting example from ills bli myn mya la Is an extremely anso marble lamp oval ova lit in shape till binl with vertical walls file snout for its ita wick Is a deep groove efti extruding anding out about 2 indies inches anti nith KI its support froin it in neath it resembles the handle of ii a modern dish tills this laina held ill id nebout two to quarts quarta of oil and its as it was found lit in abe rulus ruins of tb jbf temple its unusual suggests BUR gosta that in ill tile babylonian temple lis as lu in the naKo of it a later era and iu ill some churches even tiuis to tile thu present lay day a light wua was kept bally burning previous to 1000 n P uio the lampa ns as WL wol 11 us as lost ino it i 1111 11 1 1 I acts were of stolle after that alino objects of burned clay bogan to appear before that late date lamps lampi were found only lit in the of the flip templo ater clay lamps wro were found in ill alio dwelling houses of alic people of f alo latter a variety of r shapes have appeared some are the iho shape suggested by alic ono cite la Is a 1 miniature boat others of a later period tire identical in shape and size with those of rome find greece aliv lamp laina of these nations was undoubtedly borrowed front from the older civilization of Baby babelonia babylonia lonia the common clay lami of persia and of tile time of or cr assumed a round form forin with a dent in its rim for the wick resembling in every ft a minla ture frying pan from which the handle la Is missing the lamp of modern bagdad differs from it only lu in being abeln set upon a pedestal and provided with a handle it remained for the lamp mah maker cr of tit alio civilized west who would no longer rost rest tile tho wick upon the edge of tile receptacle for ilia oil to pass pasa it gli tho ilia brass which lif lie called the ilia burner anti and to provide it with a screw in order that it might be 10 raised or lowered and the of tile modem oil lamp were assembled saint sem bled led while we have tile seashell sea shell tho the of oc primitive mail of over years ayo ago it would IA be interesting to ehnow what kind of u oil was burned tin the olive trec aleu produces icca the lua ing oil of the i orient i aud and al gh in other oilier parts of tit tins world thu ill fat of animals way was abed the unchanging cus Lolus of ulu last enst lead us ua to infer that olive oil wua was also then alieu employed the wick was doubtless a twist of ilia cotton which grows wild along the shores of 1 it a tigris find and the L euphrates cupl rates E news |