WEBVTT - Lights, TechStuff, Action! 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to Text Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.440 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.239 and I love all things tech and I received a 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.799 request via Twitter, and remember you can reach out to 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.000 this show by tweeting two Text Stuff H s W. 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.519 And this tweet came from c t B. That is 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:38.280 a Charlie Tango Bravo. The message said, I was recently 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.640 looking up league lights and I wondered about lighting for 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.120 recording TV and movies. You touched on it some in 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.800 your recent Green Screen podcast. Would you have a podcast 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.000 about TV movie lighting? You'd get to explain best Boy 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.760 in Gaffer. I've actually talked about best Boy and Gaffer 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.160 on another episode. I think I did a full episode 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.480 about the different roles on a movie set. But we'll 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.360 get to those again because they are relevant to this 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:09.160 and CTB. I absolutely will do more than one episode 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.120 on this topic. It's actually gonna require us to go 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.000 back quite a ways to stagecraft and stage lighting to 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.720 really understand how lighting has played a critical role in 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:23.959 the way we present drama, comedy, and various entertainments. And 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.640 so this episode, or actually episodes will be a little 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.360 different from my typical episodes. I could just explain how 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.840 these lights work from a technological point of view, but 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.720 first that wouldn't take a terribly long time. It would 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.680 be pretty short and sweet, and moreover, I think it 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:47.640 misses the more interesting point, which is how artists leverage 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.960 technology to create specific effects. It's sort of like the 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.400 difference between talking about how paint is made and how 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.520 a master artist can take that paint and create a 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.360 stunning piece of art. We're going to look at not 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:07.800 just the science, but the art behind lighting. With film, television, 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.600 or digital cameras, lighting is absolutely critical if you want 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.720 your shot to look good. It's only with the careful 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.799 coordination of camera and lighting departments that a shot can 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.840 really look great. You could have an Oscar worthy performance 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.880 going on, but without good lighting, no one will be 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:30.160 able to see it. Moreover, lighting is an important component 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.959 that contributes to the overall effect a director wishes to create. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.920 Great lighting can make a scene more intimate or harsh, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:43.760 or mysterious or scary. Precise control over lighting allows storytellers 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.520 to shape a scene in a way that can better 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.440 evoke the reaction they want out of their audiences. Great 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.840 lighting can really enhance a scene, and terrible lighting can 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.640 take away from it. Typically, really good lighting is the 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.920 type of effect most of us don't really notice, but 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.680 bad lighting can be downright distracting. So there's a lot 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.560 of science and art to this, and there always has been. 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.240 Now let us remind ourselves why lighting is important in 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.480 the first place, which is super obvious, but we have 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.200 to start somewhere. Our sense of vision is dependent upon 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.480 receptors in our eyes picking up light that is reflecting 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.799 off of various things. When light hits an object, one 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.480 of a few things can happen, or a couple or several. 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.000 A transparent object will allow much of the light to 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.120 pass through it, and this is what we would call transmission. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.440 The object is transmitting light from one side to the other. 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.800 So a pane of glass that transmits light an object 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.400 might absorb the light, in which case the light energy 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.920 will convert to heat. And the darker an object is, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:58.520 the more light it's absorbing. Something like vanta black that's 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.520 a material that's it up of carbon nanotubes can absorb 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.480 up to nine nine point nine six percent of light, 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:11.040 or the object might reflect light the light the object 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.680 reflects might be across the visible spectrum like a mirror, 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.520 so you get all the visible light, or it might 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:23.120 only reflect a bandwidth of frequencies that correspond to particular 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:27.080 colors of light. A red ball is reflecting light that 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.320 largely falls in the four point three times ten to 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:36.039 the fourteen power hurts frequency that corresponds to red light. 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.800 That's just an example. By manipulating light that hits a scene, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.280 whether that scene is on stage or captured in a camera, 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.520 you can affect how that scene looks. Again, that falls 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.719 into common sense. But my goal is to explain why 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.640 this works, not just how it works. And we'll do 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.880 this by talking a lot about history, because you guys 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.920 know I love to tackle topics way, and let's start 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.080 with theater. I'd say that the art form of theater 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:09.599 grew naturally from the older art of storytelling. By the 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.400 time we get to the ancient Greeks, we see cities 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:17.080 building structures specifically to act as performance spaces, and these 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.480 were all outdoors. So the lighting came from natural sources 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.720 that you know, being the sun, and performed in the daytime. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.480 But it didn't boil down to as simple an idea 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.440 as let's build a big old space that people can 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.000 sit in and watch their afternoon stories. A lot more 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.560 planning went into it than that. The location choice needed 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.839 to take into account when performances would take place, as 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:43.880 the sun will be in different parts of the sky, 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.039 depending not just on the time of day but the season. 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.640 You wouldn't want to build a theater that was designed 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.680 for late afternoon performances if the orientation would mean that 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.640 the audience is going to be squinting into the setting 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.520 sun for the full performance, that wouldn't be ideal. The 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.080 typical Greek theater had a stage near the base of 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.840 a hill, and the slope of the hill served as 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.960 the seating area for the audience with wooden or stone benches, 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.560 and then they could look down upon the action of 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.760 the stage. There are some studies that suggest the specific 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.960 orientation of theaters took into account not just the angle 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.320 of the sunlight, but also astronomical elements. Because the Greeks 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.880 would dedicate these theaters to specific gods in their religion, 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:34.120 and typically they only held performances during times of the 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.919 year where they were having holidays devoted to those specific gods. 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.920 The Romans followed suit, though they also made some additions, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.080 such as building awnings to cover the audience so that 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.640 they didn't get too hot under the sun. As for 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.840 the actors, well, they had to suffer for their art. Again, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.159 the choice was usually made to lay out the theater 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:56.400 in such a way so that the sunlight could illuminate 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.080 the stage while keeping the audience at least somewhat protected. 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.800 But there was really no other means of controlling the light, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.839 so you were really just saying I needed to be 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.880 bright enough for the audience to see what's going on. 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.600 Everything else is going to be left to their imagination. 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.520 During the Middle Ages, most theatrical displays, typically in the 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.360 form of stuff like miracle plays, were performed outdoors. It 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.680 might be at the entrance of a church or in 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:25.120 a courtyard. A few plays were performed inside churches, which 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.680 typically allowed light in through massive windows and supplemented that 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.440 with candles that to provide, you know, more light, but 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.360 there's no real record of any sort of special stage 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.560 lighting even in Shakespeare's time. In the early Renaissance in England, 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.960 most shows were still performed outdoors. The globe theater was 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.640 an open air structure that relied on light from the 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:49.080 sun to service stage lighting. The construction of theaters like 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.240 the Globe typically meant sunlight would hit the stage while 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.240 keeping those who were seated in the galleries relatively shaded. 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.120 These were seats that were under an awning themselves, and 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.000 then you had a large area in the middle where 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:07.280 the groundlings could stand that was uncovered, and so if 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.640 you were a groundling, you might be a little exposed 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.880 to the sunlight. This meant that the stage crew, again 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.240 had no real way of changing the lighting or even 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.440 controlling it at all, and that any scenes that referenced 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.400 stuff like the dead of night or massive storms relied 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.440 entirely upon the imagination of the audience. They had to 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.640 imagine that the scene they were looking at in full 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.960 daylight was taking place at night. It also meant that 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.320 shows had to conclude well before sunset because it would 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.360 get too dark to see what was happening. Plus, in 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.800 London there was specifically a curfew, and the Globe Theater 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.200 was outside the London City gates at that time, so 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.400 if you were caught out after the gates closed, you'd 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.959 be kind of stuck. But there were also a few 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.520 indoor theaters around this time, including the Blackfriars Theater, which 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.520 was used primarily as a winter theater, since English winters 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.640 were a bit too harsh for the outdoor venues. At 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:06.360 one point, historians suspected that the shift to indoor theaters 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.680 might be linked to changes in Shakespeare's own style, but 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.440 this has since been largely contested, so it's not a 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.520 done deal. Also, it took a lot of focus for 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.120 me not to turn this into an entire episode of 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:24.080 the technology of Shakespeare's stage, because I focused on Shakespearean 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.520 studies when I was in college and I'm a little 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:28.560 bit obsessed. So I'll try to stay on track. But 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.240 if you guys ever want to hear about the full 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:35.240 technical breakdown of what Shakespeare's stage was like, let me know, 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.960 because it is kind of cool. Theaters like the Blackfriars 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.440 would use candles, and some would also use torches to 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.079 provide stage lighting. A couple of decades before Shakespeare was 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.920 even born, there was an Italian architect named Sebastiano Serlio, 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.080 and he proposed that one could put flasks, you know, 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.840 glass bottles filled with different colored liquids, like an amber 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.920 liquid or a blue liquid, and put that in front 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.600 of a candle to produce new effects in lighting. So 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.360 the stage, as you might say, was set, but the 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:13.640 effects were surely modest. In effect. They relied still very 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.400 heavily on the audience using their imagination in order to 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.920 affect the brightness of the lights directed at the stage. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.720 You had special stage crew who had the job of 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:28.160 going around and cutting back candle wicks to reduce the 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.680 amount of flame that could provide light. And it was 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.800 said that if you were really, really good at this, 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.000 you could sneak on stage without really drawing any focus, 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.600 and you could get there and cut it back, and 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.120 just the effect of being able to cut back the 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.920 light would be enough to draw applause from the audience. 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:54.199 They were so appreciative of the skill it took, particularly 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.240 if your sense of timing was really good, so that 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.439 you were cutting back the wick just as a line 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.080 was coming about a shift in the light. Audiences really 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.400 seemed to appreciate that. These crew members were typically young boys, 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:12.880 and they became known as snuff boys, which sounds pretty terrifying, 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.440 but no, we're talking about snuffing candles, and really we're 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.640 talking about trimming them back. The candles at that time 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:24.719 were made largely from tallow. Tallow candles are made from 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:29.319 animal fat, so these candles were not the cleanest. They 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.000 were a bit smelly, they were very smoky. You could 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:37.800 get bees wax candles. They were more rare, they're more expensive, 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.240 but they also produced brighter light and much less smoke. 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:46.480 So gradually, over time theaters began to incorporate more bees 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.839 wax candles. Uh. It was hard to do because they 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:55.560 were so expensive early on, but gradually people got better 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.640 at making them and the price began to go down, 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.320 and that's really when you started to see used in theaters. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.240 They would also start to create these little mirrored chambers, 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.600 these little cubbies in which the candles could sit and 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.800 the mirrors would reflect and redirect light. So rather than 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.000 just having a candle lighting out in all directions, by 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.840 using the mirrors, you could redirect all that light into 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:26.160 a more singular direction, and this helped tremendously. The typical 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.160 indoor theater would have a row of candles or later 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.199 oil lamps at the end of the stage, each housed 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.800 in a little structure lined with reflected material like polished metal, 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.000 and that way the audience wouldn't see the flame they're 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.240 seeing the back of the chamber, but the light from 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.680 the chamber would be bright enough to illuminate the action 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.600 on stage, and these became known as footlights. They were 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.320 at the foot of the stage. They were at the 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:59.000 level of the actor's feet. That's footlights. It also became 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.240 a common thing to install similar lights off to either 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.839 side of the stage, out of the audience's view. This 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.200 is in an area that is called the wings. Some 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.120 theaters would also hide lights behind the proscenium arch. Now 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:18.880 from the audience perspective, the procenium arch hangs above the 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.079 front part of the stage. Typically there's a part of 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:26.280 the stage that extends beyond the procenium line. This part 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.280 is called the apron or sometimes the thrust of the stage, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:32.920 But then you've got the proscenium. Typically this is as 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.320 far down as actors would walk in a in a 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:41.120 normal production, we call it down stage in theater. Behind 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.360 this is the main part of the stage. Then further 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.800 back towards the back wall of the stage that's upstage, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.920 so the procenium arch lights would provide illumination for more 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:56.640 of the upstage area. You would have lights mounted behind 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.319 the procenium arch um itself, and that would provide a 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.640 little more light so that the upstage area would be 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.480 just as well lit as the downstage area. The transition 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.960 from candles to oil lamps was also a really important one, 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.040 So let's talk about candles and oil lamps. I did 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:16.600 an episode not too long ago in which I described 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:20.840 the wicking effect that candles have. The wick serves as 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.880 a place where a flame can consume the fuel, which 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.480 is not the wick. The fuel is actually the wax 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.040 of the candle, or, in the case of a lamp, 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:34.360 the oil from a lamp. So in tallow candles, the 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.560 flame is feeding off the fuel of animal fat, and 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.680 as it does so, it begins to draw more of 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.720 that melted fat up into the wick, which then burns 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:49.240 off and continues this effect of wicking away liquid fuel 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.200 into the wick itself. With bees wax candles, the fuel 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.160 is wax made from beeswax. With oil lamps, it's oil, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.480 and as the flame consumes the fuel, it raws moore 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.680 fuel into it into the wick. That is, the wick 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.800 itself also burns, It turns more or less into carbon, 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.320 and it has to be trimmed back on occasion. That's 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.760 when those snuff boys come back into play. A Swiss 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:18.520 chemist named Amy Argonde designed an oil lamp that theaters 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.800 would quickly adopt to replace the candles they had been 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:26.840 relying upon. Oil lamps provide brighter, steadier light, particularly if 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.480 the oil lamps used a glass chimney, which would protect 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.320 the flame from breezes, and stage crew could also use 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.560 different colors of glass for those chimneys. Typically the choices 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.240 would fall more or less into clear glass, so just 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.480 transparent glass or green glass. Some theaters out there their 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.760 oil lamps with a green glass chimney that could be 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.080 lowered onto a lamp with a lever, which would be 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.400 in effect of dimming the lights. So let's say you've 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:58.520 got a scene in your play that goes from daytime tonight. Well, 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:03.080 by moving this lever, you could lower those chimneys into place. 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.800 The lamps would remain lit, but that green glass would 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.200 block some of the light, and you could have your 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.720 nighttime scene and would still be visible to the audience, 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.960 it just wouldn't be as bright. This was used for 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:19.560 transitions between scenes as well, or for really particular dramatic effects. 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:22.280 But this was not a subtle change, right. There wasn't 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:24.960 like a subtle dimming. It was essentially a move from 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.440 light to dark, and for a long time this was 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.760 the pinnacle of lighting effects in theater. Things would change 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.040 again in eighteen sixteen with a theater called the Chestnut 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.200 Street Theater, which is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I'll explain more 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:51.440 after we take this short break. Theaters had begun to 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.960 switch from candles to oil lamps in the late eighteenth 0:16:55.120 --> 0:17:00.720 century around seventy about forty years later, things would change again. 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.159 The Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia made a switch to 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.399 gas lighting. Now the theater wasn't telling arriving audiences that 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.400 they had just seen and really enjoyed a full show. 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.040 Not that kind of gas lighting. This was using actual 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.760 gas lights to illuminate a stage. Now, I've never done 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.240 a full episode on gaslights and how they came to be, 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.280 So we'll do a quick rundown here, and I'll have 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.520 to do a full treatment sometime later. Scientists like Yawn 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.720 Baptiste von Helmont had learned how to extract gas from 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:38.119 coal as early as sixteen o nine, but there wasn't 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.399 really any practical way to make use of it. People 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:44.240 did figure out that the coal gas was flammable and 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.879 it became kind of a party trick, but it wasn't 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:51.080 really something that people could harness effectively. Nearly two hundred 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:56.520 years after one yawn described the extraction process of coal gas, 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:01.600 another yawn, This one yawn, Peter ming Eliers, a professor 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.920 at the University of Louvain, rigged up a lighting system 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.160 that used the gas as fuel. This was in seventeen 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.879 eighty three. In the seventeen nineties, a posh nob named 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:18.120 Archibald Cochrane frequently referred to as being quota unquote eccentric, 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.040 which really just means super duper weird, but rich enough 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.439 so we don't talk about how he's weird anyway. He 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:30.000 used gas to light his home. Cochrane's fellow countryman, a 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:34.640 Scott named William Murdoch, would truly establish gas lighting as 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:39.199 a means to illuminate spaces, both indoors and outdoors. William 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.760 Murdoch was an engineer who was working for a foundry 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.600 in England in the seventeen nineties. He reckoned that you 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.439 could transport coal gas through pipes from a center of 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:54.160 production to wherever you wanted to light a lamp. So 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.080 by building out a network of pipes and lamps. You 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.720 could supply numerous lamp with fuel from a centralized production 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.440 source using coal gas. The lamps would have a nozzle 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.760 through which gas could flow, and igniting the flow of 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.159 gas would provide light. You would have a steady flame, 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.840 or that flame could then be used to heat another 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.399 element called a mantle, which would glow when it reached 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.000 a high enough temperature. This is called incandescence, and I'll 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.080 talk about more a little bit later in this episode. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.359 Keeping the gas under pressure would ensure a steady flow 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.719 of fuel to the lamps, and before long, cities like 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.359 Paris and London began to install gas lines and gas 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:43.480 lamps and gas generators, not a electrical generator running on gas, 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.720 but rather a specific device that extracts coal gas from coal. 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.080 This theater in Philadelphia, the Chestnut Street Theater, chose gas 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.280 lights to illuminate both the interior of the theater in 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.879 general and the stage in particular. The company chose to 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:02.639 install a as generator in its own building, so it 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:06.879 wasn't dependent upon some off site source, and the method 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.280 for providing light had changed, but otherwise stuff was still 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.680 pretty similar to the older methods using oil lamps and candles. 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.399 It's just that the gas lamps were replacing the oil 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.240 lamps in footlights and the wings and stuff like that. 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.640 The following year a couple of theaters in London would 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.679 follow suit. Now, one of the big advantages of gas 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:30.919 lamps was that an operator could control the level of 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.000 lighting from a centralized location. You didn't have to have 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:39.399 people at each station in order to man specific lights. 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:43.720 By opening or closing a valve that fed into, say, 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.120 all the footlights, for example, an operator could bring lights 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.400 up or down smoothly and without having to go near 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.320 the stage and the lights and the auditorium itself could 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.159 be brought down, which would increase the focus on the 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.000 stage and allow the audience to become more immersed in 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.520 the story. This would be the first time where you 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.879 could easily control all the lights in the theater and 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:10.040 be able to really direct the focus. Over time, the 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:14.560 control methods would get more complex, with regulators and valves 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.680 that allowed the operator to make more subtle changes to 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:22.600 specific lights or banks of lights. This gave theatrical companies 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.320 the ability to provide just the right amount of light 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.600 to a specific part of the stage. The system of 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.240 valves became a type of circuit, only one that facilitates 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:36.560 the flow of gas to specific lamps rather than electricity. 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.639 The operator would use a gas table to refer to 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:44.239 which valves needed adjusting to produce specific effects, and this 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:47.840 would be a predecessor to the electrical switchboards that you 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.480 would find in operator booths in theaters today. We'll talk 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.960 more about the switchboards in our next episode. But while 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.679 this approach allowed for better lighting, it was also hotter 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:01.680 than candles or oil lamps. You've got a lot more 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.359 heat produced by this, and it also burned up a 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.000 lot of oxygen, which could be a problem if say 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.479 you're a diva in an opera and you're about to 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:13.120 burst into an aria, you could actually be in danger 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:17.480 of fainting. So there were some drawbacks. Now we're coming 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:21.919 up on one of my favorite names in tech history, 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.479 not necessarily the person, but the name is phenomenal. That 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:33.399 name is Sir Goldsworthy Gurney. What a name anyway. Goldie 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.520 was an English scientist. He was an architect, he was 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:40.040 an inventor. You could call him a renaissance man, though 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:43.320 he was post Renaissance. He was born in seventeen three. 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.280 But among the many things he worked on in his 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.119 life was a device that could supply a stream of 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.919 oxy hydrogen gas. That's just a gas made up of 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:56.920 oxygen and hydrogen, and he could supply that to a 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:01.640 nozzle that could support a very high flame, and by 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.679 controlling the flow of that gas, he can control how 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.400 hot that flame burned, and they could get really hot. 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:11.840 So the gas mixture is really flammable, and it puts 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:16.200 out a tremendous amount of heat, which not only sustains 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:18.719 the burning process. You know, once you've lit it, it 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:22.959 remains lit as long as fuel and oxidizer is going 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:25.879 to it, but it can also be used to heat 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:29.720 some other element. Now, in this particular case, we're talking 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:34.560 about hydrogen being the fuel, oxygen is the oxidizer, and 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:37.080 then you add heat and you've got those three points 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:41.120 of a triangle you need to support fire. Now. Enter 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:46.680 Thomas Drummond who paired this oxy hydrogen blowpipe which could 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:49.800 be used for lots of different stuff, and used a 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:53.679 block of material made out of calcium oxide, which is 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:58.359 also known as lime. When the very hot flame from 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:03.080 this oxy hydrogen blow hype hit the calcium oxide, this 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:07.560 calcium oxide or lime would begin to emit an extremely 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:12.320 bright white light. The chemical reasons for this get complicated 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:16.800 because it includes both incandescence and possibly cando luminescence. But 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:20.840 let's take a stab at it. I mentioned incandescence earlier. 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:24.600 What is it, Well, it refers to light produced through heat. 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:28.919 If you've ever seen a blacksmith working with metal and 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:31.600 they pull the metal out of a forage and it's glowing, 0:24:31.640 --> 0:24:34.000 you see it's got that kind of reddish orange glow 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:38.359 to it. Or if you look at the old filament lightbulbs, 0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:41.800 you'll see that there's a little strip that's suspended in 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:43.800 the middle of that bulb, and that's what's giving off 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:46.440 the light when you flip a switch. In both cases 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:50.879 we're looking at incandescence. The key to that light comes 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:55.440