As I perceive that your plan admits of communications from
strangers, I beg leave to present you with an oeconomical project,
attributed to a personage much celebrated for his superior talents
in politics and philosophy. A translation of it appeared in one of
the daily papers of Paris about the year 1784. What I now send
you, is the original piece, with some additions and corrections
made in it by the author.
As we are frequently disposed in this nation to engage in wars,
and are sometimes embarrassed in what manner to raise money by
taxes, I flatter myself that some ingenious statesman will improve
upon the plan suggested in the following paper, and after altering
it to the meridian of our island, bring it forwards as a scheme of
finance. William the conqueror is said to have given considerable
offence to our ancestors by a law for extinquishing lights and
fires after a certain hour in the evening; but as the curfew was
established by a foreign prince to enable him to abtain a more
complete dominion over this country, and not by our native rulers
for the purpose of enabling us to obtain dominion over other
countries; a difference in circumstances that is so essential,
cannot escape a discerning public. By the help of the savings that
must occur from adopting the project in question in its full
extent, it is hoped that we shall easily become the terror of
nations. In any event, it may allow us to abolish various taxes
that are a burthen upon the public, and above all upon the poor,
and especially that singular tax imposed in this country upon our
use of the light of the sun, so opposite to the project here
proposed. The payment of our national debt is another object that
may readily be accomplished by it. And the scheme has this farther
recommendation attending it, that notwithstanding the distress of
France in matters of revenue, and notwithstanding the late rapid
changes of its administrations, no minister in that country, where
the hint was originally made public, has appeared willing to adopt
it; which promises us exclusive advantages from it in this
country, should we prudently adopt it here. I am, Sir, your’s,
&c.
You often entertain us with accounts of new discoveries. Permit
me to communicate to the public through your paper, one that has
been late made by myself, and which I conceive may be of great
utility.
I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new lamp
of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and much admired for
its splendor; but a general enquiry was made, whether the oil it
consumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which
case there would be no saving in the use of it. No one present
could satisfy us in this point, which all agreed ought to be
known, it being a very desireable thing to lessen, if possible,
the expence of lighting our apartments, when every other article
of family expence was so much augmented.
I was much pleased to see this general concern for oeconomy; for
I love oeconomy exceedingly.
I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight,
with my head full of the subject. An accidental sudden noise waked
me about six in the morning, when I was surprized to find my room
filled with light; and I imagined at first that a number of those
lamps had been brought into it; but rubbing my eyes I perceived
the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see
what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising
above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into
my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted the preceding
night to close the shutters.
I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it
was but six o’clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary
that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanack,
where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day.
I looked forward too, and found he was to rise still earlier every
day till towards the end of June, and that at no time in the year
he retarded his rising so long as till eight o’clock. Your
readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sun-shine before
noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanack,
will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising
so early; and especially when I assure them that he gives light as
soon as he rises; I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact.
One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes.
And having repeated this observation the three following mornings,
I found always precisely the same result.
Yet so it happens, that when I speak of this discovery to
others, I can easily perceive by their countenances, though they
forbear expressing it in words, that they do not quite believe me.
One indeed, who is a learned natural philosopher, has assured me
that I must certainly be mistaken as to the circumstance of the
light coming into my room; for it being well known, as he says,
that there could be no light abroad at that hour, it follows that
none could enter from without; and that of consequence my windows
being accidentally left open, instead of letting in the light, had
only served to let out the darkness; and he used many ingenious
arguments to shew me how I might by that means have been deceived.
I own that he puzzled me a little, but he did not satisfy me; and
the subsequent observations I made, as above-mentioned, confirmed
me in my first opinion.
This event has given rise in my mind to several serious and
important reflections. I considered that if I had not been
awakened so early that morning, I should have slept six hours
longer by the light of the sun, and in exchange have lived six
hours the following night by candle light; and the latter being a
much more expensive light than the former, my love of oeconomy
induced me to muster up what little arithmetic I was master of,
and to make some calculations, which I shall give you, after
observing that utility is, in my opinion, the test of value in
matters of invention, and that a discovery which can be applied to
no use, or is not good for something, is good for nothing.
I took for the basis of my calculation the supposition that
there are 100,000 families in Paris, and that these families
consume in the night half a pound of bougies, or candles, per
hour. I think this a moderate allowance, taking one family with
another; for though I believe some consume less, I know that many
consume a great deal more. Then estimating seven hours per day, as
the medium quantity between the time of the sun’s rising and ours,
he rising during the six following months from six to eight hours
before noon; and there being seven hours of course per night in
which we burn candles, the account will stand thus:
In the six months between the 20th of March and the 20th of
September, there are
An immense sum! that the city of Paris might save every year,
only by the oeconomy of using sun-shine instead of candles.
If it should be said that people are apt to be obstinately
attached to old customs, and that it will be difficult to induce
them to rise before noon, consequently my discovery can be of but
little use; I answer, nil desperandum, I believe all who have
common sense, as soon as they have have learnt from this paper
that it is day-light when the sun rises, will contrive to rise
with him; and to compel the rest, I would propose the following
regulations:
First. Let a tax be laid of a louis per window, on every window
that is provided with shutters to keep out the light of the sun.
Second. Let the same salutary operation of police be made use of
to prevent our burning candles that inclined us last winter to be
more oeconomical in burning wood; that is, let guards be placed in
the shops of all the wax and tallow chandlers, and no family
permitted to be supplied with more than one pound of candles per
week.
Third. Let guards also be posted to stop all the coaches, &c.
that would pass the streets after sun-set, except those of
physicians, surgeons, and midwives.
Fourth. Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the
bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not
sufficient, let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the
sluggards effectually, and make them open their eyes to see their
true interest.
All the difficulty will be in the first two or three days; after
which the reformation will be as natural and easy, as the present
irregularity: for ce n’est que le premier pas qui coute. Oblige a
man to rise at four in the morning, and it is more than probably
he shall go willingly to bed at eight in the evening; and having
had eight hours sleep, he will rise more willingly at four the
morning following.
But this sum of ninety-six millions and seventy-five thousand
livres, is not the whole of what may be saved by my oeconomical
project. You may observe, that I have calculated upon only
one-half of the year, and much may be saved in the other, though
the days are shorter. Besides the immense flock of wax and tallow
left unconsumed during the summer, will probably make candles much
cheaper for the ensuing winter, and continue cheaper as long as
the proposed reformation shall be supported.
For the great benefit of this dixcovery, thus freely
communicated and bestowed by me on the public, I demand neither
place, pension, exclusive privilege, or any other reward whatever.
I expect only to have the honour of it. And yet I know there are
little envious minds who will, as usual, deny me this, and say
that my invention was known to the antients, and perhaps they may
bring passages out of old books in proof if it. I will not dispute
with these people that the antients might know the sun would rise
at certain hours; they possibly had, as we have, almanacks that
predicted it; but it does not follow from thence that they knew he
gave light as soon as he rose. This is what I claim as my
discovery. If the antients knew it, it must have been long since
forgotten, for it certainly was unknown to the moderns, at least
to the Parisians, which to prove, I need use but one plain simple
argument. They are as well-instructed, judicious, and prudent a
people as exist any where in the world, all professing like myself
to be lovers of oeconomy; and from the many heavy taxes required
from them by the necessities of the state, have surely an abundant
reason to be oeconomical. I say it is impossible that so sensible
a people, under such circumatances, should have lived so long by
the smoaky unwholesome and enormously-expensive light of candles,
if they had really known that they might have had as much pure
light of the sun for nothing. I am, &c.