Read Brilliant The Evolution of Artificial Light Audible Audio Edition Jane Brox Randye Kaye a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
Download As PDF : Brilliant The Evolution of Artificial Light Audible Audio Edition Jane Brox Randye Kaye a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
Brilliant, reminiscent of Lewis Hyde's The Gift in its reach and of Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time in its haunting evocation of human lives, offers a sweeping view of a surprisingly revealing aspect of human history - from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future.
Brox plumbs the class implications of light - who had it, who didn't - through the many centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours. She convincingly portrays the hell-bent pursuit of whale oil as the first time the human desire for light thrust us toward an environmental tipping point. Only decades later, gas street lights opened up the evening hours to leisure, which changed the ways we live and sleep and the world's ecosystems.
Edison's "tiny strip of paper that a breath would blow away" produced a light that seemed to its users all but divorced from human effort or cost. And yet, as Brox's informative and hair-raising portrait of our current grid system shows, the cost is ever with us.
Brilliant is infused with human voices, startling insights, and - only a few years before it becomes illegal to sell most incandescent light bulbs in the United States - timely questions about how our future lives will be shaped by light.
Read Brilliant The Evolution of Artificial Light Audible Audio Edition Jane Brox Randye Kaye a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
"I love books that show the connectedness of events, books like Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927 and Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey. Brilliant shines a light on the world before and after Man harnessed fire, from stone lamps of the Pleistocene 40,000 years ago to the future of cool light and the concern today of light pollution. Despite some sections heavy in technical detail, Brox has a lyrical style which capture's the reader's imagination from the pitch dark streets of a medieval city to the constant drudgery of an American farm wife before the electric grid expanded to rural areas. Never before had I considered what the brightness of the night sky has done to astronomy or thought about the darker side of the TVA water project in the 1930's. This is a book that will expand your understanding and perhaps even make you ponder why the gods were outraged that Prometheus stole fire and gave it to humankind"
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Brilliant The Evolution of Artificial Light Audible Audio Edition Jane Brox Randye Kaye a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books Reviews :
Brilliant The Evolution of Artificial Light Audible Audio Edition Jane Brox Randye Kaye a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books Reviews
- I love books that show the connectedness of events, books like Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927 and Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail A New American Journey. Brilliant shines a light on the world before and after Man harnessed fire, from stone lamps of the Pleistocene 40,000 years ago to the future of cool light and the concern today of light pollution. Despite some sections heavy in technical detail, Brox has a lyrical style which capture's the reader's imagination from the pitch dark streets of a medieval city to the constant drudgery of an American farm wife before the electric grid expanded to rural areas. Never before had I considered what the brightness of the night sky has done to astronomy or thought about the darker side of the TVA water project in the 1930's. This is a book that will expand your understanding and perhaps even make you ponder why the gods were outraged that Prometheus stole fire and gave it to humankind
- With this sort of book - an examination of an event, a process, an evolution - sometimes the complaint is a lack of continuity. Readers bemoan, and rightfully, what is little more than a collection of facts and anecdotes. In some particular order, yes, but not much of one. That complaint can't be made about Jane Brox's "Brilliant."
Brox establishes a beginning thread, then writes along it to enlighten the reader (sorry, I just couldn't resist) as to the role of artificial light - which is to say any light after sundown other than moonlight - as the reigning hallmark of civilization. She successfully depicts artificial light as inextricable from the social, creative and industrial evolution that has led to our modern life.
I imagine a stylized seminal moment, maybe ten thousand years ago, which might have been the beginning of the beginning of cities. In my setting a lone traveler is making his way as the sun fades. He spots a fire - small and contained, therefore made by a human - and heads toward it. By good luck, he and the other human speak the same words. The two spend the night in the circle of the fire glow, in some comfort given by the radiant heat from the fire. Our traveler has a rabbit hanging from the cord around his waist. The fire maker has gathered some berries and roots. They combine their holdings, eat well and converse. The anxiety and resultant depression in each human is abated. Your version will likely be different, but I'll bet whatever it is it includes a flame driving back the darkness.
In the movie "All the President's Men" Deep Throat, in the shadows of the parking garage, reveals his presence to Woodward not with a shuffle or by clearing his throat, but by striking a match. The metaphor is obvious, yet so right for the moment it is also delicious. As much as language - maybe more - a gem of light within darkness defines human beings on planet Earth.
Today we take electricity on demand as granted, barely giving this tool a first thought, much less a second. We tend to view electricity as something almost as natural as rain. One of Brox's resultant subtexts is a display of the millions of Americans who lived the nineteenth century well into the twentieth. In some cases there were still rural areas in America without electricity as late as 1960, of people still living by kerosene light and unable to lighten their endless farm work by using electric motors. Yes, at the dawn of the Space Age some distant farmers still lived and worked in the halo of chemical burning.
Jimmy Carter contributes several anecdotes about his flame-lit boyhood in southern Georgia. The same Jimmy Carter, of course, who was born well into the twentieth century and who would become a nuclear engineer and President.
(Some of the lesser reviews for this book fault Brox for technical mistakes, which are, in fact, in the text. I think this shortcoming lies more with the current state of publishing (i.e., the demise of editors) than with Brox. As well, this book is about the social impact of artificial lighting much more than the technical aspects, although I certainly learned a lot about the limitations, and frequent monitoring, any light with a flame required. A few minutes spent on the web page for this book indicates this content.) - I really enjoyed the first part of the book, but in the later chapters the author seemed to be getting bored with the story. I wish she would do another edition including the latest advances in lighting, and rewrite the parts she seemed to be bored with. I put a book mark at that point so I can stop there next time I reread it.
- Good book on the history of artificial light. I work in the LED lighting industry (LED Driver Chips) and have an interest in lighting already, so book was a good read for me. Well written, not dry like a textbook.
- EXCELLENT BOOK! Very well researched and written. I truly have enjoyed reading this. I rate it the full five stars. It flows well and takes one through each and every path that man has taken to get us where we are today with artificial light. I love this book.
- This is a very interesting topic and the book starts out very well, going into the history of lighting at various points. But then it derails as it becomes a series of vignettes rather than an exhaustive or rigorous look at the subject matter. There are entire chapters on the TVA and a world's fair, for example. The book is also very US-focused, and hardly mentions other counties. Its also full of long quotes, which reeks of laziness. The book could also really do with pictures. Finally, it becomes apparent fast that the author has no real scientific background, and is a bit of a lightweight. So don't expect much rigorous or thorough discussion.
This subject is just begging to be addressed in a more comprehensive way. In sum, I would not recommend getting this book. - My favorite book of the last 5 years. This books will give you a new perspective on the life of our forebears, from the neolithic to our grandmas.
- This book was extremely helpful in finding anecdotal information for history presentation preparation. I learned so much about history and the history of lighting through this book.
