Brightwell has fashioned a multilayered, Upstairs Downstairs-type mystery that drew me in completely. When I finally paused to reflect, I realized it had everything but the kitchen sink. To wit: a young servant girl moves from the country to London and hides her past from her new employers; the matriarch of this household is on her deathbed while her daughter-in-law longs to return to Paris; and her son is intent on proving that anthropometry is a superior method to fingerprinting in identifying criminals. One more thing—when the eldest son is expected to return from India, what the family gets instead is a woman claiming to be his widow and the news that he has drowned at sea. In 1886 a design was patented for operating the shutter with the thumb of the hand that held the lantern. The implications for one-handed operation meant that the other hand could open doors or hold a weapon. Dietz, an American maker of high quality lanterns, began selling this design in 1888 and marked them “Police Flashlight.” 1886 Dark Lantern patent drawing, the design which was sold from 1888 as the Dietz Police Flashlight. https://darklanterntales.wordpress.com/ I'm finished reading the book. Things did come together at the book's end, but despite the protagonists' escapes from the drudgery of servitude or living double lives, it's still not altogether a happy ending. I don't need happy endings, I just need ones that sort of fit. I think this book ended a little more tidily than I would have liked it to, but that's just my own personal opinion. Lanterns utilizing LEDs are popular as they are more energy-efficient and rugged than other types, and prices of LEDs suitable for lighting have dropped. un libro abbastanza lento e non per la prosa, bensì per scene dove la scrittrice si disperde in descrizioni di momenti anche ripetuti, senza metterci tanto altro nel mezzo, rendendo il tutto retorico.

Millar, Preston S. (30 April 1920). "Historical Sketch of Street Lighting". Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society. New York, New York: Illuminating Engineering Society. XV (3): 185–202.

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This book portrayed Victorian England well. The relationships between the servants themselves and their interactions with their employers conveyed what daily household life may have been like in Victorian England. Jane, the main narrator/point of view of the story is newly arrived to London from the country. She is the second house maid and therefore responsible for most of the scutwork "upstairs", such as cleaning and lighting the fireplaces, and the majority of the cleaning. Unfortunately, she is also taken advantage of quite often.

I liked that this book was able to put me into the Victorian Era for awhile, at least as long as I read it. The grime and sights and smells of London in the 19th century were just there, waiting for me. Lanterns were usually made from a metal frame with several sides (usually four, but up to eight) or round, commonly with a hook or a hoop of metal on top. Windows of some translucent material may be fitted in the sides; these are now usually glass or plastic but formerly were thin sheets of animal horn, or tinplate punched with holes or decorative patterns. Would I recommend The Dark Lantern? Well, I wouldn’t not recommend it. If you like literary novels, you will probably like this book. If you bond with different characters than I did, you may like this book. If you can overlook the bladder scenes and sex scenes and the unusual narration tense and just kind of float above it all as an interesting story, you may very well like this book. I enjoyed learning about anthropometry, and expect most readers would find the subject interesting, too.

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Could have done without the sex scenes. The fact that they were mostly easily skipped over tells me they really weren't essential to the plot. While some might consider this book atmospheric, for me it was plodding. It did depict the hard life of those in service “below stairs.”

Jovinelly, Joann; Netelkos, Jason (2007). The Crafts and Culture of a Medieval Town. New York, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4042-0761-5.

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Pepper, Terry. "Great Lakes Lighthouse Illumination". Seeing the Light. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009 . Retrieved 21 September 2008. Wedgwood, Hensleigh (1855). "On False Etymologies". Transactions of the Philological Society (6): 66. The scene itself, the fringe of London in the ‘nineties, is about to pass, and has the sad enchantment of the doomed. And Richard Maddison is drawn to it, as to a fellow-sufferer. For his existence has depreciated in the same way; he is a country boy, living nostalgically in his country childhood, but condemned to labour as a bank clerk. And hopelessly condemned, as he has no resilience. He is strict, sensitive, devitalised, a born worrier. But he is conscious of a great need, a need for Hetty Turney and her tenderness. Hetty would bring him peace, would be his mother, and his childhood, and his lost home. But courting her is perpetual torment.

If the other volumes are up to the present standard, we have something to look forward to. “The Dark Lantern” establishes its family in surrey and north-western Kent during the last decade of the 19 th century and describes the troubled courtship and marriage of its hero. Mr. Williamson’s descriptions of London and the countryside are memorable and, though his story is no thriller, the drama is tense and absorbing. Richard and Hetty are the main characters of this first volume. The story revolves and evolves around their complicated courtship and marriage. Due to the antipathy of Mr Turney to Richard, the latter is reduced to visiting Hetty clandestinely, through a door in their garden wall, behind which is an orchard and a summerhouse. It seems likely that HW based this garden door on the actual door pictured below; it is close to the ponds, and old maps of Carshalton show that there was once indeed an orchard behind it. Today the whole area is a small nature reserve. However, other than Robert Bentley, there wasn’t a single character about who I really cared. I could sympathize with Jane, considering her beginnings, but didn’t particularly like her. These were unpleasant people behaving unpleasantly and almost no one is as they seem and everyone is spying on everyone else. The dark lantern design still had a viable place on boats into the 1950s. Made by Perkins (Perko), boat lanterns evolved to have Fresnel lenses and many can be found marked as “Boat Signal,” or “Boat Lantern.” These operate with the familiar knob near the bottom and could be a used as a slightly awkward signal light. A fascinating portrayal of a vanished England as well as an unconventional mystery, The Dark Lantern exposes the grand “upstairs” of a Victorian home and the darker underbelly of its servants’ quarters. The clash between the classes makes for a suspenseful novel of mistaken identities, intriguing women, and dangerous deceptions.

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The Dark Lantern” is a period piece, the period being the last decade of the nineteenth century. Mr. Henry Williamson has been almost uncannily successful in his evocation. London, where Richard Maddison works, and the suburb in Surrey where he lives, are presented to the mind and senses in another idiom of time, and even the country, where his home was, wears a different aspect. . . . As to the story, it is almost as slow-moving as the transport. . . . This very individual story, in which Nature, as might be expected, is lovingly observed, will appeal to readers who would rather travel hopefully than arrive. There was a disturbing near-rape scene near the end of the book, and an overly graphic description of a human corpse. The term "lantern" can be used more generically to mean a light source, or the enclosure for a light source, even if it is not portable. Decorative lanterns exist in a wide range of designs. Some hang from buildings, such as street lights enclosed in glass panes. Others are placed on or just above the ground; low-light varieties can function as decoration or landscape lighting and can be a variety of colours and sizes. The housing for the top lamp and lens section of a lighthouse may be called a lantern. [14] Etymology [ edit ] Richard Maddison is based upon Henry Williamson’s own father, William Leopold Williamson, and as far as can be ascertained is, with a few elaborations and diversions, a fairly true and accurate portrait. A s this first book of A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight ends, so Jenny shyly tells her husband that she is pregnant. But, of course, we already know from the earlier Flax of Dream series thatthis is to end in tragedy.