Context
"A new age had begun for sociality and corporate pleasure- seeking…. The work of Prometheus had advanced by another stride. Mankind and its supper parties were no longer at the mercy of a few miles of sea- fog; sundown no longer emptied the promenade; and the day was lengthened out to every man’s fancy. The city folk had stars of their own; biddable, domesticated stars. It is true that these were not so steady, nor yet so clear, as their originals; nor indeed was their lustre so elegant as that of the best wax candles. But then the gas stars, being nearer at hand, were more practically efficacious than Jupiter himself… But the lamplighters took to their heels every evening, and ran with a good heart. It was pretty to see man thus emulating the punctuality of the heavens’ orbs.”-Robert Louis Stevenson
Tesla lived in an era of mass change and was, in part, responsible for the deliverance of society into the modern technological period. Innovation was being cultivated on a colossal scale globally, especially as people became infatuated with electricity. Tesla was instrumental in bringing the world from a time of candle lights to an age of electric power and wireless energy.
Gas and Arc Lights"Not a little impatience has been manifested by the public at the seemingly unaccountable tardiness with which introducing the "carbon loop" electrical light into general use ...as a convenient and economical substitute for the gaslight."-Thomas Edison, The North American Review (1880) America by 1875 was home to more than 400 gaslight companies, including one owned by Thomas Edison. Europe was using primarily arc, early electric, lights, contrasting gaslights, powered by traditional gas.
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"Horrible, unearthly, obnoxious to the human eye; a lamp for a nightmare! Such a light as this should shine only on murders and public crime, or along the corridors of lunatic asylums, a horror to heighten horror. To look at it only once is to fall in love with gas, which gives a warm domestic radiance.”-Robert Louis Stevenson on Paris Arc Lights