Only sources of light are things like lamps or torches. What do people do? Do they huddle in their houses? Is there anything resembling night markets, or is it considered to be too dangerous? Do they just huddle in a cluster for night markets? Were dark alleys places of doom, or did the ambient light prevent constant robberies and murders? Were there lines of torches like in the fantasy mmos, or were those too expensive? Who goes out at night? Who's out there at night?
Depends when and where I guess. In large cities like London, electric lights were introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, but a quarter of a century on and Jack the Ripper became a notorious serial killer in the "slums" of Whitechapel which would, at best, still have been lit by gas lamps. Markets, taverns, nightlife etc., were all still very much a thing In villages and the country things probably would have been different, and longer ago, before gas-lighting things would have been different, although I suspect the wealthy would still have had some kind of lighting for security
Want to try it? Sometimes I like to live by candlelight. It's peaceful and beautiful, but I'm sure it's dangerous.
I read a book review of a book that covered this, but never read the book. I think it was 'Night in the Middle Ages' by Jean Verdon (It's been translated to English, which was probably when I came across the book review for it).
I don't think there was much of a "night life" as even candles proper were expensive and people had to resort to less viable alternatives.
I've used candles and oil lamps, and the light from them is pretty abysmal. You really can't read by them very well if at all, you need to get up super close. But I have learned a few things. The big fat candles like my mom used to keep on a tray on the coffee table for a power outage—they're no good. Right at first they're fine, but after a while the flame tunnels it's way down inside and then they become like flashlights aimed up at the ceiling, and that's the only thing that gets any light. You want to use the long skinny ones called tapers, that fit into candlestick holders, because as they burn down the light still goes out in every direction and lights the whole room. To make it brighter add more candles. But open flames are dangerous, easy to knock over etc. Oil lamps are better, but difficult to maintain. You have to trim the wick every time before you light it again, which means to actually take scissors and cut off the burnt part at the top, about a half inch or maybe 3/4. An oil lamp is brighter than a candle, about like 3 or 4 candles, but still barely bright enough to read by and you need to be up super close, holding the book like inches away. But apparently the oil they used years ago was much brighter, and I think when they used whale oil it was a lot brighter still. It was definitely the super-oil before petroleum was discovered. Burned brighter and cleaner than anything else, but still when you burn things you get smoke and soot all over everything and it all starts to get a brown or dark gray coating that will eventually turn thick and black. This also gets on the inside of the glass and needs to be cleaned frequently, like every day or the light gets darker and the soot is a fire hazard. A flashlight is far brighter than an oil lamp, though of course it only casts light in a small beam. If you've been through power failures you learn a couple of things. When the power goes out people tend to go outside, because there's nothing to do inside anymore and the AC or heat isn't working. So neighbors see each other and talk, often for the first time in ages if not ever. They also stay in and and have a lot of sex, maybe after hanging out with the neighbors for a while. There were a lot of babies born 9 moths after a big blackout in New York IIRC. Also, it's brighter outside than inside, even though from inside the house it looks really dark out there. As soon as you go out it's a lot brighter than it seemed, even at night unless it's a really black night. And when you live your life by the natural rhythms of the sun people tend to go to sleep shortly after it gets dark. This is true even if you use candles or lamps, because they're just not very bright really. Of course it's probably very different in modern society because we're used to things like watching TV or looking at the computer or playing video games etc. As soon as those things go down (when the batteries run out) things get really boring in the house fast, Of course in ye olden times they used to do things like sing as a family, and everybody learned to play instruments, because that was their entertainment. They also were far better at conversation than we are, because again it was entertainment and a way to spend time in the semi-dark.
A fireplace lights up a room much brighter, depending on what you're burning—paper and cardboard really flares up but burns out fast. Potato chips flare up really good too and only last for a few seconds. Leaves and dried grass and bark are the same as paper, you use them to get the fire started, then have small twigs etc above that, and then courses of larger sticks and then small logs and you start to lay on bigger logs as the fire gets strong enough, At least that's show I learned to do it (from experience). You can pretty easily read by a fireplace, but you have to be careful—the fire shifts and gets hotter and sometimes you need to keep getting up to mess around with it to keep it going, and it can fade considerably at times. And if you're going to use fire extensively it takes a hell of a lot of work cutting dead trees and chopping wood almost every day. It makes you strong but you can be sore a lot and have injuries from it frequently. And every so often there's a big POP and burning stuff flies out all the way across the room. I've had to run around and put out small embers before they smoldered through the carpet in several spots, and once an ember landed right on my fleece jacket and instantly burned a hole right through it. Reading is difficult by any of these methods. You have to get in uncomfortable positions and maintain them the whole time. By lamplight you need the side of your face up almost as close as the book, and it gets really warm or hot, and that eye gets blasted with light while the other one isn't. Frustrating. You might want to switch to facing the other way every so often, but that requires moving everything. Reading by a fireplace is very frustrating. You have to either lay on the floor like you've seen Lincoln do or turn your back to the fire but somehow not block the light getting to the book. Very tricky and you have to hold the book up in the air in front of you while your shoulders get weaker and weaker and start to shake and hurt. This might clear up after a few months as they get stronger. And when the fire pops embers can get on the book. If there are better ways I never found one.
Oh, you can turn up an oil lamp by turning the little finger dial that raises more wick, and it gets a lot brighter, but it also starts to smoke really bad and soot builds up way faster, darkening the glass in a few minutes. It's extremely frustrating. There's no good in-between, you learn pretty fast to just keep the flame down low almost like a candle flame and deal with the poor light. Maybe the new paraffin oils just suck and it was better in the past—this is what I hear anyway. I don't know how much better. Of course people living in those times wouldn't know how bad it sucked. It would be way better than what their parents or grandparents had to deal with, so to them it would be the newfangled super-light—the latest cutting edge technology. Though poorer ones might have seen some people with the better newer tech and not be able to afford it for themselves. If you really want to know what it's like I recommend doing what somebody above said—try it for yourself. You can get oil lamps at I think Target and other places that sell candles in the housewares section. And they look real nice sitting on a table and are better than candles when the power goes out. You can carry them around lit and because of the glass wind doesn't make them burn out. I used to be afraid that if one fell off a table it would break and make a huge puddle of flammable oil that would instantly set the house on fire (see scene in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein where the Bride smashes oil lamp over her head and immolates herself and burns down the entire house). But apparently the fuel won't burn without a wick properly feeding it up above the metal housing. I never tried it, but i did try to light some Tikki torch fuel once in a beercan penny stove and it wouldn't light. That also needs a proper wick, and I don't think a carpet or rug would work as a wick. Not entirely sure. I also don't know if it's only the modern paraffin fuels that work that way or if whale oil or older petroleum fuel would work that way.
I think you need to be fairly specific as to what your situation is. And what kind of lighting is available. Were there oil lamps and gaslights like what people had in the early Victorian period—which were produced and maintained as an industry, rather than as a product of an individual's effort? Or was the available lighting dependent on burning wood—which could be cut and stored by individuals and families, or other sources of fuel that could be gathered or manufactured by hand? Of course, the time of year and location will matter as well. Summer, in the northern climes, has loads of daylight, while winter is the opposite. And what do you mean by 'night life?' City life? Country life? You could do worse than look at artwork from these various time periods and places. Painters who never knew about electric lighting still managed to paint night scenes. So have a look at some of their work, and see what you can glean from it. The Time Traveller's Guide series, available on Amazon, written for different historical periods, should give you quite a bit of information to go on. I own a paperback copy of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England, by Ian Mortimer, and I think I have a couple others on Kindle as well. They're great sources of this kind of information. Check out the artist Petrus Van Schendel. (Google: Petrus Van Schendel photos) He was a Dutch artist who died in 1870, before the onset of electric lighting, and his specialty was apparently market scenes at night, done by candlelight. Quite a collection, and it will certainly give you an idea to go on. And obviously markets DID happen at night, during the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe. Here are two examples:
And keep in mind that at any given point in history they would also have earlier forms of light available—candles, torches etc. But yeah, it's isn't clear what you mean by night life—are you talking about inside the houses, or out on the streets/in bars and clubs etc? Or both?
Apologies for the none answers. I've been having issues. I mean on the streets and such. I know lighting was expensive but people still used it. I'm wondering about public lighting
There was a point where gas lamps were used for indoor and street lighting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_lighting Not sure how helpful this will be, since that is a broad period of history. But if your going for a Steampunk or late 1700's through to the early 1900's then it may be of some use.
There really wasn't any until the advent of gaslights in the 19th century. Before that, people carried torches or lanterns with them if there wasn't enough light from the sky, Before refined petroleum products became available (in that same century), lamps burned whale oil or, more usually, vegetable oils such as olive oil, or oils rendered from fat. Here's a good write-uo of the use of these oils: https://www.lightlink.com/rhiannon/Bedwyrs%20handouts/Bedwyrs%20Lighting/naturaloils.html
I disagree with JLT. Street lighting preceded the widespread adoption of gas lighting by a considerable time span. http://www.historyoflighting.net/electric-lighting-history/history-of-street-lighting/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_street_lighting_in_the_United_States
London had street lamps long before electricity. Read fiction from the 1800s and they'll often give descriptions of the night life. It wasn't uncommon to be out for walks or drinking around midnight.
From the early 15th century in London, along the main thoroughfares it was a requirement to hang a lantern from the front of your house. The lamps were usually oil with metal reflectors so they gave a good light, and they had to burn from dusk to 5am. Other cities had similar byelaws. Pall Mall was fully lit by gas in 1807. Before gas street lighting, cities were often lit with paraffin lamps. Fun fact: people sometimes scaled the lamp posts to drink the paraffin.
Yep. As soon as I saw this thread I thought of the song, "The Old Lamp Lighter." I thought it was by Tom Lehrer, but it was actually by The Browns:
In the sense that the individual homes had lighting of some sort, you are right. But municipal urban street lighting was a product of the 19th century, as I said. I thought that's what the OP wanted to know.
Not quite true. Modern lamp oil is basically kerosene (which the Brits call paraffin). It's the same as charcoal lighter fluid, which you can light without a wick. (Drop a match into some spilled lighter fluid to test this for yourself. Period lamp oils, on the other hand, require not only a wick but a bit of pre-heating, as it will not burn at room temperatures, You have to hold a match or equivalent to the wick for several seconds before the oil will get hot enough to burn on its own. The links I provided elsewhere give much valuable information on this, and I can confirm it from personal experience.
Another source of night-time light is the moon. The balls of Jane Austin's time were held on nights when a fullish moon was expected. Otherwise it was too dangerous to travel by coach. I'm sure there's a werewolf story to be made out of that...
Here's a rather lengthy article on the topic: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/31/life-before-artificial-light One of the things mentioned briefly is "segmented sleep." Apparently people used to sleep from dark-ish to around midnight, then wake up for an hour or two, then go back to sleep. A concept my body seems to be endorsing at the encouragement of my aging bladder
