Candle lighting, speaking
broadly, is either very inadequate so far as ordinary living-rooms are
concerned, or, if adequate, is very costly. Tests specially carried out
by one of the authors to determine some of the figures required in the
ensuing table show that ordinary paraffin or "wax" candles usually emit
about 20 per cent. more light than that given by the standard spermaceti
candle, whose luminosity is the unit by which the intensity of other
lights is reckoned in Great Britain; and also that the light so emitted
by domestic candles is practically unaffected by the sizes--"sixes,"
"eights," or "twelves"--burnt. In the sizes examined the light evolved
has varied between 1.145 and 1.298 "candles," perhaps tending to increase
slightly with the diameter of the candle tested. Hence, to obtain
illumination in a room equal on the average to that afforded by 100
standard candles, or some other light or lights aggregating 100 candle-
power, would require the use of only 80 to 85 ordinary paraffin,
ozokerite, or wax candles. But actually the essential objects in a room
could be equally well illuminated by, say, 30 candles well distributed,
as by two or three incandescent gas-burners, or four or five large oil-
lamps.
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