The Kerosene Lamp 

Thomas Edison created the light bulb in 1879, but what did people do before that? 

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Of course, in pre-historic times, the sun and fire were the original sources of light.

Dating back to 300-200 BC, the use of animal fat (such as that from whales) was used in what is known today as "candles". Likewise, around this time different oils were being burned to produce light. In China, they were even using beeswax. 

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In the 1700's, people turned towards coal as their source of light with the use of gas lighting. 

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In the early 1800's Humphry Davy created the arc light. Davy discovered an electric "arc" between two different sources of charcoal using a battery. At this time, many still used sources of oil to illuminate the streets. However, there was one big problem with this: the oil often splashed people walking by and stained clothes or burned skin. A new source of fuel was needed to provide a long-lasting and safe form of light.

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This brings us to 1853 where two pharmacists, Jan Zeg and Ignatius Lukasevych discovered that the combustion of kerosene could be used as a source of light near the "Under a Gold Star" pharmacy in Lviv, Ukraine. This new source was not only lower in cost than oil, but also gave greater brightness and better burning properties than oil. They officially received a patent for their discovery that same year in 1853.

Now, in Lviv, there is a restaurant-museum dedicated to this very invention. It holds the second largest collection of kerosene lamps in Europe. 

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