In England David Garrick, upon his return from Paris in 1765, introduced numerous
stage reforms at the Drury Lane Theatre including the removal of the chandeliers from
the stage and a strong emphasis on lights located beyond the proscenium arch.
These included winglights and an improved version of footlights called 'floats'.

Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, who joined the Drury Lane Theatre in 1771 as
Garrick's scenic designer, employed lighting to create spectacular scenic effects.
He used color media and light changes for atmospheric effects such as moonlight,
fire, dawn, and so on. De Loutherbourg also used the most advanced light source
of the period, the Argand burner, invented in 1782, in order to achieve brighter and
more effective illumination.

In 1782 the Swiss engineer Amie' Argand invented the Argand burner, which was
the archetype for the kerosene lamp still in use today. The Argand burner however
used oil instead of kerosene, which only came into wide use in 1859. The instrument
included an oil receptacle and a glass cylinder in which the flame burned, protected,
immensely reducing the danger of fire. The lamp was designed so that a supply of
enriched oxygen entered through openings in the bottom of the lamp and flowed up
the cylinder and along the wick, feeding the flame. Colored light for special theatrical
effects was achieved by simply placing colored glass in front of the light source.

Argand burners were introduced into the Odeon Theatre in Paris in 1784, when the
Comedie Francaise premiered Le Marriage de Figaro. Within a short time these oil
lamps were adopted as the standard source of stage lighting all over Europe.