The Lighting Art

Excerpt from The Lighting Art: Its Practice and Possibilities
Mankind has enjoyed such an abundance of natural daylight throughout the entire existence and evolution of the human race that the present general indifference to the possibilities in lighting is easily accounted for. With the advent of artificial light-sources of greater adaptability, the activities of man changed considerably and as modern artificial illuminants are readily controllable there naturally has arisen a new science and art, namely, that of lighting. Such desirable features as adaptability and controllability often result in misuses of artificial light at the hands of those who are indifferent so or untrained in the proper use of light. This together with the greatly increased possibilities led to the development of specialists in lighting and, owing to his coimection with many of the activities upon which the production of light depends, the engineer became the embryo from which the so-called illuminating engineer of today evolved.
As the efficiency and adaptability of artificial light-sources and the knowledge of the importance of proper lighting developed, the demands upon the engineer became more varied until today when the many aspects and possibilities are becoming more appreciated, the engineer must greatly extend his horizon and knowledge in order to qualify as a Lighting specialist in the broadest sense. Notwithstanding the extensive possibilities in fighting at the present time and the myriad ramifications of the attendant problems into various sciences and arts, there is still a tendency on the part of many to look upon a lighting problem primarily from the engineering standpoint regardless of the nature of the problem.
Bearing witness to this fact are the books on lighting which consist largely of engineering data and considerations. A vast amount of lighting which has been well done, has been accomplished through applications of scientific and artistic principles not covered by engineering data.
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