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People have always lit their homes. Candles and oil lamps are a few of the devices used to light homes in previous centuries. Today, however, artificial lighting almost exclusively means electrical light. In little over a century, we have become so accustomed to its brightness, convenience, and practicality that it is almost impossible to create any interior space without it. When the celebrated American inventor, Thomas Edison, patented his incandescent light bulb in 1879, the electric …

…its very low UV content is ideal for illuminating paintings or textiles without damaging their fabric or wherever materials need to be conserved and protected from heat, and in conditions that might otherwise be dangerous, such as swimming pools. Side-emitting fibers can be used, like neon, to outline architectural shapes. Fiber optics also provides an efficient way of lighting a large expanse decoratively, since a single bulb can control many small starry points of light.