I obviously didn't live before electricity but I did grow up on a dairy farm in Michigan. Even to this day, you go down after dark and get up at dawn...pretty much what they would have done back then too.
"Second Sleep" is an interesting, if slightly divergent research topic to pre-electrical nightlife...fyi
I remember my father talking about doing homework with the light from a coal-oil lamp. That's close to kerosene to most folks, or paraffin oil in the UK. That was in the 30's. I think they got electricity after WWII. During my youth, we had a cabin in the Rockies without electricity for a while; we used Coleman lanterns.
Those things are bright as hell!! Give off crazy heat when turned up too. I didn't watch it, but youtube recently showed me a video about why the invention of the gas mantle caused a revolution in lighting technology and was so many times brighter than any kind of wick. My guess is because it has so much greater surface area that lights up. I assume the algorithm knew I had been discussing pre-electrical lighting on this thread. Kinda scary the way what we do anywhere on the net seems to be known everywhere else.
Funny side story, some lifetime ago I was out ice fishing (fishing through a hole in the ice for those not familiar with it). My buddy's older brother attempted to light a cigarette by sticking it into a coleman lantern and the thing blew the cigarette up. The tobacco shreds went down the hole and suddenly we started catching fish. Guess those fish needed a fix of Saint Nicotine too.
