Video shows the progress of lighting through time

The video is informative and educational, with facts including a timeline of functional light from the sun at the dawn of time through fire in circa 125,000 BC to terracotta oil lamps, using dried grass or wood and animal fat by the Ancient Greeks around 4500 BC, and candles as created by the Romans in 500 BC. The development of more modern light is tracked from Humphry Davy’s 1802 Carbon Arc Lamp and gas streetlights in 1802, replaced by Thomas Edison’s electric light bulb and electric street lighting in 1878.

The switch from functional to decorative is evident by a change in pace, featuring Georges Claude’s 1902 neon lamp and the invention of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), set in motion by Henry Joseph Round’s 1907 discovery of volts applied to carborundum crystal emitting a yellowish light. From there on it spirals into usable LEDs in various colours with multiple functions, including the World’s Largest Christmas light display in Canberra in 2014 using 1.2 million LED lights on 75 miles of cable.

Speaking of the video, Stephen Alty, General Manager at Festive Lights, said: “Lights are not just a necessity for us, but a passion, so we’d love for more people to know how decorative lighting like our fairy lights came to be from something that was once simply functional. We hope people enjoy our brief look at the history of how lighting came to be today as much as we enjoyed putting it together.”