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06723_Field_TCUM T288.txt
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1996-04-10
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893b
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16 lines
Not many ages ago, glass windows were unknown
luxuries. With light control by glass came also a means of
controlling the regularity of domestic routine, and steady
application to crafts and trade without regard to cold or rain.
The world was put in a frame. With electric light not only can
we carry out the most precise operations with no regard for
time or place or climate, but we can photograph the
submicroscopic as easily as we can enter the subterranean
world of the mine and of the cave-painters.
Lighting as an extension of our powers affords the
clearest-cut example of how such extensions alter our
perceptions. If people are inclined to doubt whether the wheel
or typography or the plane could change our habits of sense
perception, their doubts end with electric lighting. In this
domain, the medium is the message, and when the light is on