Range of Illumination

[MrBrightsider]

And can you imagine? That was every day life for that time period. No wonder they made up stories about all sorts of terrible things that lurk outside their little village. Like half the stuff out there wants to eat you.

 

[skip.knox]

It's a commonplace to say medieval peasants lived most of their lives within fifteen miles of their home village. That's not an arbitrary number. It's the extreme limit of how far you can get and still get back home before nightfall. It's not only the dangerous things that prowl in or near the night (lots of predators out around dusk, and you sure don't want to stumble over a sleeping boar), it's also that it's far easier to get lost, you now have to bring food and camp gear, and some sort of weapon. It's a whole different proposition to travel multiple days.

 

[MrBrightsider]

That paragraph right there could be an entire novel. Who would have thought "Peasant gets lost in the dark" could be so compelling?

The first ever serf psychological horror story, hah.

 

[Mark Huntley-James]

From practical experience with candles and the like, air currents are a menace. The moment the flame starts flickering, shadows move and whatever you thought you could see has changed. Back when I did seventeenth century battle enactments, one of the period pieces some people had was a pierced candle lantern - basically a metal can with holes poked in the walls to let some light out. It's not as bright as the bare candle, but it controls the air currents and provided there are no holes in the top of the can, you don't trash your night vision when you glance down.

 

[skip.knox]

Mark Huntley-James, do you recall roughly how far you could see with that shielded lantern? It's surprisingly difficult to find estimates.

 

[Mark Huntley-James]

Mark Huntley-James, do you recall roughly how far you could see with that shielded lantern? It's surprisingly difficult to find estimates.

Sorry, no. It was 10+ years back and I never saw one in use where there was no other illumination. They mostly came out around the camp fire of an evening and we never owned one ourselves. In the privacy of our own tent we used that traditional seventeenth century lighting system - the propane gas lantern.

My suspicion is that range would be very dependent on the number, size and distribution of the holes. Some of the folks who played officers had very fancy ones with the holes cut in intricate patterns - no better for the light, but it looked very fine when lit!

 

[skip.knox]

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with what is story-convenient, I think. My characters are in deep, lightless caverns, using Ruhmkorff lanterns--Jules Verne made use of them--so they'll have some sort of container plus a backing mirror. Since my devices are powered by phlogiston, I can probably have it reach just exactly as far as needed and not an inch farther. I was just looking for context, but also whether a person might see a ceiling if it were a hundred feet overhead, or a thousand. I've already thought of adding some sort of reflective mineral or gem and so make stars at the center of the earth. Still not sure I'll use that, but sparklies are always fun.

 

[Mark Huntley-James]

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with what is story-convenient, I think. My characters are in deep, lightless caverns, using Ruhmkorff lanterns--Jules Verne made use of them--so they'll have some sort of container plus a backing mirror. Since my devices are powered by phlogiston, I can probably have it reach just exactly as far as needed and not an inch farther. I was just looking for context, but also whether a person might see a ceiling if it were a hundred feet overhead, or a thousand. I've already thought of adding some sort of reflective mineral or gem and so make stars at the center of the earth. Still not sure I'll use that, but sparklies are always fun.

That was a new one on me and I had to go and look it up! I've actually seen a Ruhmkorff coil in action (moderately noisy as I recall), generating a 3-4 inch arc in air, and then when a wad of paper was placed in the way the arc went around until it finally punched through the paper.