Study on illuminance and visual properties of flammable illumination

In order to investigate the physical, economical, physiological and psychological aspects regarding ancient lighting, two series of experiment were performed. At first a darkroom (1.3 x 4.5 m, Ht: 2.7 m) was constructed. In experiment I, illuminance and consumption rate of fuel were measured. The Japanese classic candle, plant oil and animal fat yield 1.12, 0.30-0.62 and 0.05 lux at 1.0 m distance, respectively. The illuminance was reduced to about 50% by and on which was a lighting tool of folkcraft. The burning duration of plant oil was about two weeks to 180 ml when it burned 4 hours per one day. In experiment II, 15 young females were examined regarding the visual properties such as visual acuity, readability of newspaper and discrimination of color under the simulated illumination of candle. The visual acuity was 0.42 under 0.16 lux. It needed more than 1.44 lux to read a newspaper. In the color discrimination test, yellowish green was most difficult, silver or long wave range colors were easy.