A RETROSPECTIVE OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY

A retrospective of the origin and development of light sources is given depending on the history of human development and the creation of funda-mental sciences: mathematics, physics, and elec-trical engineering. Four stages of development and creation of artificial light sources in buildings and structures are proposed. A detailed description of the pre-electric period (regular use of fire by the man; the Bronze Age, the middle Ages and moder-nity) is presented. The second period begins with the opening of the voltaic arc, which can be called the beginning of the electric period. Illustrations of each discovery with lighting of rooms and buildings of the corresponding period are presented. The pe-riod of inventions, which led to the beginning of the third, gas lighting period, is described. This period includes, among other things, the combined use of gas lighting devices with electric lighting and com-bined gas-electric lighting. The fourth period be-gins at the beginning of the third millennium and continues to the present. During this period new alternative lighting sources appear along with in-candescent lamps and gas-electric sources. Light-ing engineering is becoming an independent branch of science and is being studied in all universities of our country, which increases the rate of appear-ance of new inventions and types of calculation. There are such lighting sources as fluorescent and LED lamps and fixtures. At the end of the article, the opinions of scientists on the prospects for the development of artificial lighting according to var-ious criteria are presented. The article is provided with a large number of illustrations for all stages of development.