American lucifers : the dark history of artificial light, 1750-1865
(Book)
Author
Published
Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2019].
ISBN
9781469653327, 146965332X
Physical Desc
356 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Status
Westerly - Non-Fiction (2nd Floor-Reference Room)
338.4 Z
1 available
338.4 Z
1 available
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Westerly - Non-Fiction (2nd Floor-Reference Room) | 338.4 Z | On Shelf |
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More Details
Published
Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2019].
Format
Book
Language
English
ISBN
9781469653327, 146965332X
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
"American lucifers tracks how struggles to produce light transformed American history, beginning with the rise of the American whale fishery in the 1750s and culminating in the emergence, around the Civil War, of the petroleum industry and its primary product, kerosene. Between this shift from oil harvested from whales to oil extracted from rocks, American light was substantially derived from a substance called camphene, a highly explosive liquid mixture of spirits of turpentine and highly distilled alcohol, generally extracted from North Carolina pines by enslaved workers. Over the course of this narrative, Jeremy Zallen reveals the centrality of slavery to labor in gasworks, coal mines, guano islands, and factories that made illumination possible. Moreover, though the lights they created may have offered a veneer of progress and convenience, they also made it possible for industry to extract workers' and slaves' labor around the clock. The availability of these illuminants extended men's working days to the point that women and children were expected to shoulder all domestic labor as a matter of course"--,Provided by publisher.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Zallen, J. (2019). American lucifers: the dark history of artificial light, 1750-1865 . University of North Carolina Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Zallen, Jeremy. 2019. American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865. University of North Carolina Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Zallen, Jeremy. American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865 University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Zallen, Jeremy. American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865 University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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