leaving lengths of pith partially
supported by threads of the skin which were not stripped off. These
sticks of pith were placed in the sun to bleach and to dry, and after
they were thoroughly dry they were dipped in scalding grease, which was
saved from cooking operations or was otherwise acquired for the purpose.
A reed two or three feet long held in the splinter-holder would burn for
about an hour. Thus it is seen that man was beginning to progress in the
development of artificial light. In developing the rushlight he was
laying the foundation for the invention of the candle. Pliny has
mentioned the burning of reeds soaked in oil as a feature of funeral
rites. Many crude forerunners of the candle were developed in various
parts of the world by different races. For example, the Malays made a
torch by wrapping resinous gum in palm leaves, thus devising a crude
candle with the wick on the outside.

Many primitive uses of vegetable and animal fats were forerunners of the
oil-lamp. In the East Indies the candleberry, which contains oily seeds,
has been burned for light by the natives. In many cases burning fish and
birds have served as lamps. In the Orkney Islands the carcass of a
stormy petrel with a wick in its mouth has been utilized as a
light-source, and in Alaska a fish in a split stick has provided a crude
torch for the natives. These primitive methods of obtaining artificial
light have been employed for centuries and many are in use at the
present time among uncivilized tribes and even by civilized beings in
the remote outskirts of civilization. Surely progress is limited where a
burning fish serves as a torch, or where, at best, the light-sources are
feeble, smoking, flickering, and ill-smelling!

Progress insisted upon a light-source which was free from the defects of
the crude devices already described and the next developments were
improvements to the extent at least that combustion was more thorough.
The early oil-lamps and candles did not emit much smoke, but they were
still feeble light-sources and not always without noticeable odors.
Nevertheless, they marked a tremendous advance in the production of
artificial light. Although they were not scientific developments in the
modern sense, the early oil-lamp and the candle represented the great
possibilities of utilizing knowledge rather than depending upon the raw
products of nature in unmodified forms. The advent of these two
light-sources in reality marked