FEW people today appreciate the impact the incandescent lamp made following its invention in 1879. In Brilliant, Jane Brox captures the before-and-after. Beginning with lamps carved from limestone 40,000 years ago, she expertly traces the tortuous route to artificial light. Along the way she describes malnourished peasants who chose to burn the tallow they could have eaten, and the advent of cheap kerosene – “the democratic perfection of light”.
With the arrival of incandescence, farmers smashed their once treasured kerosene lamps. Artificial light has been taken for granted ever since, resulting in a sprawling electric grid and rampant light pollution.…
