EVOLUTION OF LIGHT

Introduction
500 years ago everyone lived in the dark. Of all the great achievements in science and
invention, the production and application of artificial light without a doubt ranks amongst
one of the greatest. However transforming night into day and day into night at the touch
of a switch is now taken for granted and we often forget how we came to have 24 hour
light! Both natural and artificial light is at the core of our health, well being, safety,
efficiency, fortune and happiness - It is detrimental to our livelihoods.

‘Darkness was upon the face of the deep; this was due to a malfunction at Lots
Road Power Station. And God said, let there be light; and there was Light, but
Eastern Electricity Board said he would have to wait until Thursday to be
connected. And God saw the Light and it was good; He saw the quarterly bill and
it was not good’.

The Bible, The Old Testament according to Spike Milligan.

Artificial lighting technology began to be developed tens of thousands of years ago, and
continues to be refined in the present day, from the oil lamp through to the first practical
incandescent electric light bulb and the energy saving LED.

Timeline of Lighting Technology

70,000 BC- 2014
natural 70,000 BC: The first lamps were made from a hollow rock, shell, or
other found objects and were filled with dried plants or similar materials that
were then soaked in animal fat and ignited.

4500 BC onwards: Oil lamps

4500-3300 BC: The first manufactured red pottery oil lamps were created
in the Chalcolithic Age and were of the round bowl type.

3200-1200 BC: The Bronze Ages then further developed the oil lamp.
Lamps were simple wheel-made bowls with a slight pinch on four sides for
 the wick. Later lamps had only one pinch, with the shape evolving to be
more triangular, deeper and larger.

1200-560 BC: The Iron Age made the rim of the lamp wider and flatter with
a higher sprout. The lamps also started to become variable in shape (both
small lamps with a flat base and larger lamps with a round base).
The Greeks further developed the lamps to become more closed to avoid
spilling and used Terracotta to create the round, wheel made oil lamp.
For the next 2,000 years production of oil lamps then shifted to Italy as the
main source of supply during the Roman period, with lamps being
produced in large scale factories. These lamps were created using
moulded clay and were often embellished with writing, allegorical or erotic
scenes.

3000 BC: Stone oil lamps and candles are invented.

900 CE: Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi invented the kerosene lamp.

Prior to the introduction of gas light in the late 18th century, there had been
a number of experimental attempts to source another different type of light
from electric energy.

Otto Von Guericke (1663) produced the first man made electric light by
means of a revolving sulphur filled glass globe which then rubbed against a
cloth and produced sparks of electricity. By 1709 Francis Hauksbee added
a small amount of mercury to the glass globe, getting rid of most of the air
from it. Once a sufficiently strong charge of static electricity had been built
up the globe glowed when warm hands were placed on it. This was the
world’s first proto-neon light.

After Hauksbee’s electric static experiments it was then nearly a century of

research by other scientists until there were any further developments.

18th Century saw the start of the industrial revolution which resulted in an
increased demand for more and more light.
The
1777: William Murdoch went to work at engineering firm Boulton & Watt in
Birmingham. They made factory equipment such as steam engines and
later the provision of lighting equipment. Following a report on Lebon's
lighting scheme in France they encouraged the development of suitable
lighting equipment using a team of their engineers.

1792: William Murdoch invented the use of coal for lighting, oil was
therefore superseded by coal as the lighting fuel of choice.

1799: Engineers at Boulton & Watt started to manufacture gas lighting

equipment and gas street lamps were installed to illuminate Pall Mall in
London and in 1813 Westminster Bridge was lit by gas light and within a
few years gas lighting was being used in other countries as well, Paris was
gas light by 1820.

19th Century

The 19th Century saw the race to build a viable electrical light source,
which saw many scientists battle to be the first to invent this.
The development of electrical lighting coincided with the new profession of
industrial design.

1802: Sir Humphry Davy conducted his first electrical discharge lighting
experiments. These experiments first started to fuel interest in the idea of
electric lighting using the incandescent principle- based on the observation
that solids and gases when heated to a temperature above 520 degrees
will emit light.
1809: Humphry Davy had perfected the first electric carbon arc. This
apparatus did not have a filament and relied solely on two carbon rods
place very closely together, but not touching. The electric current sparked
across the small gap to form an arc of glowing vapour, while the carbon
points become white hot and this produced light over 10000 lm and thus
1000 times brighter than candles. Davy then demonstrated this to the
public at the Royal Society

SOLAR ECLIPSE
A solar eclipse occurs when a portion of the Earth is engulfed in a shadow
cast by the Moon which fully or partially blocks ("occults") sunlight. This
occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned. Such alignment
coincides with a new moon (syzygy) indicating the Moon is closest to
the ecliptic plane.[1] In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is fully obscured
by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses, only part of the Sun is
obscured.
If the Moon were in a perfectly circular orbit, a little closer to the Earth, and
in the same orbital plane, there would be total solar eclipses every new
moon. However, since the Moon's orbit is tilted at more than 5 degrees to
the Earth's orbit around the Sun, its shadow usually misses Earth. A solar
eclipse can only occur when the moon is close enough to the ecliptic
plane during a new moon. Special conditions must occur for the two events
to coincide because the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic at its orbital
nodes twice every draconic month (27.212220 days) while a new moon
occurs one every synodic month (29.530587981 days). Solar (and lunar)
eclipses therefore happen only during eclipse seasons resulting in at least
two, and up to five, solar eclipses each year; no more than two of which
can be total eclipses

Total eclipses are rare because the timing of the new moon within
the eclipse season needs to be more exact for an alignment between the
observer (on Earth) and the centers of the Sun and Moon. In addition, the
elliptical orbit of the Moon often takes it far enough away from Earth that
its apparent size is not large enough to block the Sun entirely. Total solar
eclipses are rare at any particular location because totality exists only along
a narrow path on the Earth's surface traced by the Moon's full shadow
or umbra.
An eclipse is a natural phenomenon. However, in some ancient and
modern cultures, solar eclipses were attributed to supernatural causes or
regarded as bad omens. A total solar eclipse can be frightening to people
who are unaware of its astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to
disappear during the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.
Since looking directly at the Sun can lead to permanent eye damage or
blindness, special eye protection or indirect viewing techniques are used
when viewing a solar eclipse. It is technically safe to view only the total
phase of a total solar eclipse with the unaided eye and without protection;
however, this is a dangerous practice, as most people are not trained to
recognize the phases of an eclipse, which can span over two hours while
the total phase can only last a maximum of 7.5 minutes for any one
location. People referred to as eclipse chasers or umbraphiles will travel to
remote locations to observe or witness predicted central solar eclipses. [4][5]
LUNAR ECLIPSE
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly behind Earth and
into its shadow.[1] This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are
exactly or very closely aligned (in syzygy), with Earth between the other
two. A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon. The type
and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to either
node of its orbit.
During a total lunar eclipse, Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from
reaching the Moon. The only light reflected from the lunar surface has
been refracted by Earth's atmosphere. This light appears reddish for the
same reason that a sunset or sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer
light. Due to this reddish color, a totally eclipsed Moon is sometimes called
a blood moon.
Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small
area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on
the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly 2 hours,
while a total solar eclipse lasts only up to a few minutes at any given place,
due to the smaller size of the Moon's shadow. Also unlike solar eclipses,
lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special
precautions, as they are dimmer than the full Moon
FORMATION OF RAINBOW
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused
by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in
a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured
circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of
sky directly opposite the sun.
Rainbows can be full circles. However, the observer normally sees only an
arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground,[1] and centered on a
line from the sun to the observer's eye.
In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the
inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a
droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and
refracted again when leaving it.
In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has
the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc. This
is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the droplet
before leaving it.

A rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but

comes from an optical illusion caused by any water droplets viewed from a
certain angle relative to a light source. Thus, a rainbow is not an object and
cannot be physically approached. Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to
see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary
one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the light source. Even if an
observer sees another observer who seems "under" or "at the end of" a
rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow—farther off—at
the same angle as seen by the first observer.
Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colours. Any distinct bands
perceived are an artefact of human colour vision, and no banding of any
type is seen in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow, only a smooth
gradation of intensity to a maximum, then fading towards the other side.
For colours seen by the human eye, the most commonly cited and
remembered sequence is Newton's sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo and violet,[2][3] remembered by the mnemonic Richard Of York
Gave Battle In Vain (ROYGBIV).
Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include
not only rain, but also mist, spray, and airborne dew.

Rainbows can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and
sunlight shining from behind the observer at a low altitude angle. Because
of this, rainbows are usually seen in the western sky during the morning
and in the eastern sky during the early evening. The most spectacular
rainbow displays happen when half the sky is still dark with
raining clouds and the observer is at a spot with clear sky in the direction of
the sun. The result is a luminous rainbow that contrasts with the darkened
background. During such good visibility conditions, the larger but
fainter secondary rainbow is often visible. It appears about 10° outside of
the primary rainbow, with inverse order of colours.