How was a billiards table lit in 1763, or the stage of the Red Bull playhouse in 1673? The earliest red and green traffic light was in London in 1868; but what was street lighting like in Paris in 1524, or San Jose, California, in 1885? How did the early U.S. settlers light their homes, and how did this compare with the homes of Sumeria 4500 years ago, or with Stone-age lighting 15000 years ago? How were 4000 candles lit in less than a minute at the crowning of an English king, and what did Notre Dame look like with 1600 fat candles burning at the funeral of a French one? How were early lighthouses lit, and how were they built? What light did they use in an operating theatre 2500 years ago, and what were the rules for the surgeon who used it? How did Michael Angelo paint at night, and were paintings of night scenes accurate?

The answers to all these questions are to be found in The Social History of Lighting (originally published in 1958), representing the fruits of careful historical research over many years in a virtually unexplored field. We read with horror of conditions in slave ships, warships, and emigrant ships because we no longer realize that to have no light was absolutely normal below decks; just as it was equally normal not to work after dark. The effect of light, or the lack of it, on social history should provide much food for thought. It is fortunate that the subject is also full of surprises and entertainment value for the general reader as well as the historian. The author, to present effectively the numerous contemporary references upon which this study is based, made a series of tests involving lengthy vigils by the lights available in the past. The result is an authoritative work that will be invaluable professionally to historians, curators, and stage and screen producers.

William T. O’Dea was Keeper in the Science Museum, London.