Lighting up our homes

From ancient times until the Victorian era, lighting in the home remained pretty much unchanged. The main source of light was also the main source of heat: the hearth. When night fell, reading or sewing had to be done around the fireplace, or you just went to bed.

The cheapest form of supplemental lighting was homemade rushlights, made from the pith of the rush plant, dipped in grease or animal dripping. Placed in a holder horizontally, they could be lit at either end to double the brightness at the cost of longevity. From this came the popular expression ‘burning the candle at both ends’.

High quality candles and oil lamps were often prohibitively expensive. Tallow candles, made from beef or mutton fat were preferred to rushlights. But they burned with a noxious smoke and proved very attractive for hungry pests.

They also required snuffing every 30 minutes or so to avoid the tallow guttering and the wick burning out. To maximise their illumination candles would have been placed in front of a mirror, or for those less well off a pewter dinner plate, reflecting the dim light back into the room.

In the 1880s, candles became cheaper and gas came to light homes. Domestic life began to look a lot brighter, if only in a literal sense. Sleeping patterns changed as the arrival of night-time no longer necessitated the end of the day’s activities.

With more hours of light to read, literacy improved. Eating and entertaining could take place later in the evening, and work could be performed at any hour of the day.

This, along with other factors, changed attitudes towards sleep. People began to see it as an inefficient use of time rather than a necessary period of rest and recuperation.

The invention of the incandescent light bulb in the 1870s kicked the illumination revolution into overdrive. Homes were provided with a constant, strong illumination without the toxic fumes of gas lighting or the continual vigilance needed for candles.

There were people still left behind of course. In some rural areas the cheapest and most readily available form of light remained homemade candles and rushlights even into the 1900s.

When the National Grid came into operation in 1933, fully lit homes became achievable across society. Cheap electricity and mass-produced bulbs meant life at home could be truly 24/7. Since then, it seems very little has changed apart from the various appliances and devices that fill our homes and have made them even brighter.

Nonetheless, as we become more aware of the environmental impact of our demand for electricity and more concerned about our technology addiction, it may well be that in the future we’ll be spending a little more time in the dark.