le lamp may be determined by placing it upon
a table and noting the spread of light while seated in a chair beside
it. A floor lamp may also be tested very easily. A miniature floor lamp
about four feet in height with an appropriate shade provides an
excellent lamp for reading purposes because it may be placed by the side
of a chair or moved about independent of other furniture. A tall floor
lamp often serves for lighting the piano, but small piano lamps may be
found which are decorative as well as serviceable in illuminating the
music without glare.

The dining-room presents an entirely different problem for the setting
is very definite. The dining-table is the most important area in the
room and it should be the most brilliantly illuminated area in the room.
A demonstration of this point is thoroughly convincing. The decorator
who designs wall brackets for the dining-room is interested in beautiful
objects of art and not in a proper lighting effect. The fixture-dealer,
having fixtures to sell and not recognizing that he could fill a crying
need as a lighting specialist, is as likely to sell a semi-indirect or
an indirect lighting fixture as he is to provide a properly balanced
lighting effect with the table brightly illuminated. The indirect and
semi-indirect units illuminate the ceiling predominantly with the
result that this bright area distracts attention from the table. A
brightly illuminated table holds the attention of the diners. Light
attracts and a semi-darkness over the remainder of the room crowds in
with a result that is far more satisfactory than that of a dining-room
flooded with light.

The old-fashioned dome which hung over the dining-table has served well,
for it illuminated the table and left the remainder of the room dimly
lighted. But its wide aperture made it necessary to suspend it rather
low in order that the lamps within should not be visible. It is an
obtrusive fixture and despite its excellent lighting effect, it went out
of style. But satisfactory lighting principles never become antiquated,
and as taste in fixtures changes the principles may be retained in new
fixtures. Modern domes are available which are excellent for the
dining-room if the lamps are well concealed. The so-called showers are
satisfactory if the shades are dense and of such shape as to conceal the
lamps from the eyes. Various modifications readily suggest themselves to
the alert fixture-designer. Even the housewife can do