Lab Report: Reading by Candlelight

You have now had a chance to submit your first lab report. This second lab report focuses on an activity intended to replicate the reading experience of a 19th-century reader. For the reading material, use an issue of Great Expectations currently in your possession. Find a darkened room. Safely, light a candle or a bunch of candles. Do not use any form of artificial light in this experiment. Spend at least 30 minutes reading your issue of Great Expectations.

Your choice of types of candles, position in the room, number of candles, seating arrangement, and more will also determine your class standing. More candles inevitably means an ability to purchase and burn multiple candles. An ability to be the only person in the room also indicates your social class. Consider what role you will play in this scenario and your access to the surrounding space and materials.

Before you report on the experience, you'll need to record a few details about your selections:

1. Describe the physical features of the room in which you will perform your reading experiment.
2. Describe the natural light and/or windows in the room (including window coverings).
3. Describe your position in the room: where are you sitting in the room? what are you sitting on? where is the candle sitting in relation to your position? How close is the reading material to the candle(s)?
4. How many candles are you using? Are they new candles? What are the candles made of? Embed an image of your candle set up at this point.

After you have concluded the 30 minutes of reading, record your responses to the following:

1. Based on your choices, what social class did you take on to perform this experience?
2. What time did you begin your reading experiment? What time did you end?
3. Did the natural light fade or increase during your 30 minutes?
4. How far away from the candles did you need to hold the reading material in order to read?
5. Did the candles emit any smoke? What color was the smoke? Did the smoke interfere with your reading ability?
6. How did you position the reading material? In your hands? on the table or some other device to prop it up?
7. How much time did it take you to read a column of text?
8. How much of the Great Expectations issue were you able to read in 30 minutes? (Describe in terms of columns of text or number of pages.)
9. Did you find yourself skipping words that you could not easily read?
10. Did you read sequentially or did you glance through the issue first before embarking upon the reading?
11. Were you able to see the engravings in detail? How long did you look at an engraving?
12. How close to your eyes did you place the reading materials in order to see details in the engravings or to read the words?
13. How did the paper quality impact your ability to clearly see the words and the images?
14. How did the paper quality impact your ability to clearly read the words?
15. How did the page layout (or aesthetics) impact your ability to read the issue?
16. How did the quality of the type impact your ability to read the issue?

You may certainly cut and paste these questions into your response and answer each one sequentially in complete sentences. Avoid simply responding yes/no. These questions should inspire you to describe and expound on the experience. We will discuss your findings at our first meeting after Spring Break.

This assignment idea inspired by Dr. Ryan Cordell's "Lab #3: Simulating the Scriptorium Links to an external site.."