In the beginning....
god said let there be light. And for a long time this came from a rather primitive but surprisingly effective method - the oil lamp. From the early days of putting simple wicks into congealed animal fats, through candles to more sophisticated oil lamps people have been using this form of illumination. Archaeologists tell us this goes back at least 40,000 years so there has been plenty of scope for innovation to improve the basic idea! Certainly by the time the Romans domestic illumination - albeit with candles - was a well - developed feature of civilized society