Lanterns allowed us to stay up later, turning this period of wakefulness into a full night’s sleep instead. Roger Ekirch believes that in the past, adults typically slept in two chunks – waking up for an hour or so in the middle of the night to pray, reflect, and interpret dreams, and in some cases to even visit neighbours. This dramatically changed the character of those cities, allowing for some semblance of public life to continue during the evenings. But it wasn’t until the 1500s or so that cities began to light public spaces with lanterns. Most of them were basically a candle in a box, but there are a few early examples that consisted of oil with a burning wick.įrom the Middle Ages, cities would hire watchmen to carry lanterns through the streets at night to prevent crime.
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