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People went to bed when the sun went down because candles cost money. The light bulb changed everything.

by expedition32 8mo ago

richev 8mo ago
Lighting was the killer app for electricity.
- somenameforme 8mo ago
  Outdoor lighting in particular, at first at least. A fun historical anecdote on this one most don't know is the saying that somebody "can’t hold a candle to [x]". It's a reference to the old profession of link-boys who were mostly poor kids who'd carry a torch at night for people to see their way about, in exchange for a penny or two.
xeromal 8mo ago
I find that when I go camping, I get sleepy early around 9pm and I wake at 6 feeling more refreshed than I do at home. Fresh air and birds chirping. It's honestly a dream
ghewgill 8mo ago
Electricity costs money too? I don't know how the cost of power compared to the cost of a candle in the beginning of the 20th century though.
- al_borland 8mo ago
  I’m going to get an electricity bill each month no matter what. I won’t notice a few bulbs being on for a couple extra hours each day. I would notice having to go out and buy candles all the time, or needing to make them. A candle can be consumed over the course of a day or maybe even a few hours. A light bulb can last months or years. If light bulbs burned out as fast as candles burn, I would be a fanatic about keeping the lights off and only use them when absolutely necessary.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
- cowboylowrez 8mo ago
  I asked gemini for the cost of power but it could be lying through its smirking sense of superiority and general all around disdain for the humans it will soon replace. "The electrical cost to produce the same amount of light as a single standard candle is approximately $0.01 per year if run for 14 hours every day. In terms of energy consumption, a standard candle produces about 12.57 lumens of light, which can be matched by an LED bulb using only 0.1 to 0.2 watts."
somenameforme 8mo ago
[flagged]
- duskwuff 8mo ago
  I suspect you've never actually tried that. A torch isn't just a bundle of sticks that provides light. It needs to be soaked in liquid fuel to work - like kerosene or wax - and it's a messy, smoky thing even then. It's completely unsuitable for use indoors, and it certainly isn't a cheaper alternative to candles.
  - somenameforme 8mo ago
    Or perhaps you haven't. Many common resources are perfectly viable for making torches from including resin from a variety of common tree and plant types. If you want to get fancy you can even make your own pitch. It was the reason I added 'lush'. And why in the world would you want to be indoors? It'd be vastly more pleasant at e.g. your gazebo or wherever else, of course subject to climatic/weather extremes. The concept of spending vast amounts of time indoors for both recreation and work is an extremely new thing. Not only post-electric but largely post-internet.
AngryData 8mo ago
Ehh, you can still do stuff when it is dark and there are plenty of crafts and tasks you can do in extreme low light on top of just socialization. Its not like northern people slept hours longer than southern people, or that people sleep way longer during the winter. The moon creates plenty of light outdoors for things, and if you don't have fires going and it is a clear sky even the stars are bright enough to walk around through open outdoor spaces. Not to mention nearly everybody had some sort of fire pit at home that they used daily for warming or cooking food and drink. Personally I think this misconception only exists because people alive today have never had to or tried to do things in the dark or extreme low light conditions. You can't do everything, but there is a lot you can do, especially if you aren't constantly blinding yourself for 20 minutes at a time by looking at bright modern light sources. We even have the notion of a harvest moon, because you can work easily outside during a full moon, and fishing by moonlight is a thing and has been since before electricity. Also candles may be expensive, but they are far from the only lighting option and certainly nowhere near the cheapest. Candles were prized for how nice and consistent and hands-off they were along with not smelling nearly so much or being as smoky or sooty. Rush plants, or others, dipped in any kind of oil or fat or resin make portable candle-like light, and also simple oil lanterns themselves you can place on a floor or table which date back to atleast 10,000BC. You can also use fatwood sticks, the wood of a tree like a pine that is sometimes soaked with pine resin and would be split into thin sticks that burn really nice and bright and long.

People went to bed when the sun went down because candles cost money. The light bulb changed everything.

richev 8mo ago

Lighting was the killer app for electricity.

somenameforme 8mo ago
Outdoor lighting in particular, at first at least. A fun historical anecdote on this one most don't know is the saying that somebody "can’t hold a candle to [x]". It's a reference to the old profession of link-boys who were mostly poor kids who'd carry a torch at night for people to see their way about, in exchange for a penny or two.

xeromal 8mo ago

I find that when I go camping, I get sleepy early around 9pm and I wake at 6 feeling more refreshed than I do at home. Fresh air and birds chirping. It's honestly a dream

ghewgill 8mo ago

Electricity costs money too? I don't know how the cost of power compared to the cost of a candle in the beginning of the 20th century though.

al_borland 8mo ago
I’m going to get an electricity bill each month no matter what. I won’t notice a few bulbs being on for a couple extra hours each day. I would notice having to go out and buy candles all the time, or needing to make them. A candle can be consumed over the course of a day or maybe even a few hours. A light bulb can last months or years. If light bulbs burned out as fast as candles burn, I would be a fanatic about keeping the lights off and only use them when absolutely necessary.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
cowboylowrez 8mo ago
I asked gemini for the cost of power but it could be lying through its smirking sense of superiority and general all around disdain for the humans it will soon replace. "The electrical cost to produce the same amount of light as a single standard candle is approximately $0.01 per year if run for 14 hours every day. In terms of energy consumption, a standard candle produces about 12.57 lumens of light, which can be matched by an LED bulb using only 0.1 to 0.2 watts."

somenameforme 8mo ago

[flagged]

duskwuff 8mo ago
I suspect you've never actually tried that. A torch isn't just a bundle of sticks that provides light. It needs to be soaked in liquid fuel to work - like kerosene or wax - and it's a messy, smoky thing even then. It's completely unsuitable for use indoors, and it certainly isn't a cheaper alternative to candles.
- somenameforme 8mo ago
  Or perhaps you haven't. Many common resources are perfectly viable for making torches from including resin from a variety of common tree and plant types. If you want to get fancy you can even make your own pitch. It was the reason I added 'lush'. And why in the world would you want to be indoors? It'd be vastly more pleasant at e.g. your gazebo or wherever else, of course subject to climatic/weather extremes. The concept of spending vast amounts of time indoors for both recreation and work is an extremely new thing. Not only post-electric but largely post-internet.

AngryData 8mo ago

Ehh, you can still do stuff when it is dark and there are plenty of crafts and tasks you can do in extreme low light on top of just socialization. Its not like northern people slept hours longer than southern people, or that people sleep way longer during the winter. The moon creates plenty of light outdoors for things, and if you don't have fires going and it is a clear sky even the stars are bright enough to walk around through open outdoor spaces. Not to mention nearly everybody had some sort of fire pit at home that they used daily for warming or cooking food and drink. Personally I think this misconception only exists because people alive today have never had to or tried to do things in the dark or extreme low light conditions. You can't do everything, but there is a lot you can do, especially if you aren't constantly blinding yourself for 20 minutes at a time by looking at bright modern light sources. We even have the notion of a harvest moon, because you can work easily outside during a full moon, and fishing by moonlight is a thing and has been since before electricity. Also candles may be expensive, but they are far from the only lighting option and certainly nowhere near the cheapest. Candles were prized for how nice and consistent and hands-off they were along with not smelling nearly so much or being as smoky or sooty. Rush plants, or others, dipped in any kind of oil or fat or resin make portable candle-like light, and also simple oil lanterns themselves you can place on a floor or table which date back to atleast 10,000BC. You can also use fatwood sticks, the wood of a tree like a pine that is sometimes soaked with pine resin and would be split into thin sticks that burn really nice and bright and long.