NEWS RELEASES
Let There be Light at Horsham Museum
6 March 2008
Anyone who has a fear of the dark or who is fascinated by light will find the new exhibition at Horsham Museum of interest, as it sheds light, quite literally, on ways we have come up with to banish the darkness. Once tied to the rising and setting of the sun, humankind has looked for different ways to light up the dark of night for centuries, and in so doing has freed us from the fears and dangers the dark might hold.
‘Let there be Light’ is an exhibition that features the earliest kinds of lighting invented thousands of years ago, including the candle, oil lamp and the rush light, and takes the story up to our own time, to include the electric light bulb and florescent lamps. It is salutary to think that up until only a little over a century ago, people mostly used candles for lighting and even as little as 50 years ago there were still some areas in the country that relied on oil lamps. The nineteenth century was the great age of electricity, when its properties were being understood and used for the first time, and the electric light bulb, something so small and simple, has revolutionised our lives these past 100 years.
The exhibition is also a timely one, as faced with the threat of global warming and a need for energy conservation; it features the latest technology in low-energy light bulbs.
The exhibition is due to light up on Friday 7th March 2008, running until Saturday 3rd May, when the lights go out!
For further information please contact Jason Semmens, Assistant Curator.
Horsham Museum
9 Causeway, Horsham,
West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959
Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
Web: http://www.horshammuseum.org/