Genre:

Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Light, Technology, Domestic Economy, Education, Steam-power, Gender

    Describes the responses of members of the Fogie family to their new lamp. Their exchanges about the lamp reveal their worries about the dangers of the lamp exploding. Contrasts are developed between Mr Fogie, who explains the mechanism of the lamp in terms of a steam engine, to his wife, who finds it difficult to understand the lamp, and the scientific explanation of the lamp mechanism offered by Miss Winterbottom.