Walkabout: Shine a Light, Part 2

Read Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 of this story.

Lighting has changed much in the last couple of centuries. We’ve gone from the wan light of a single candle to the overly bright light of gases trapped between glass, fueled by electricity. In the first part of our history of lighting, we looked at candlelight, liquid fuel derived from animal fats, such as whale oil, and the first fossil fuel derivative; kerosene.

Lighting fixtures have ranged from a single candle in a holder, to multi-candled chandeliers and fixtures, to lanterns and lamps of glass and metal, with thick wicks to burn liquid fuel.

Last time, I mentioned the painted glass globed “Gone With the Wind lamp” as the quintessential mid-19th century kerosene fixture. I was wrong.

It was pointed out to me by one of our readers, Commodore Stephen Decatur, that the use of that lamp in the movie was an anachronism.

The painted glass GWTW lamp was not in use in the 1860’s, because it was not introduced until the 1890’s. Thank you Commodore, I had imparted the wrong information. Hollywood, humph!

Happily, I can say that that supports my statement that in spite of lighting with gas and electricity, kerosene lamps remained a popular lighting source long after newer alternatives were being introduced. The next innovation in lighting in the 19th century would be natural gas.

Gas was in use as a lighting fuel in America as far back as the early 1800’s, the first city to light its streets with gas was Baltimore, in 1817. Early gasworks extracted gas from coal.

It was a complicated, messy and smelly procedure, with lots of dangerous and polluting by-products. The gas underwent several purifying processes which were designed to produce a clean, bright flame with little or no smell or residue, but if the processors were even a bit careless, the fuel could be quite unpleasant, with smoky, with a nauseating smell.

But by the 1850’s, gas was widely in use in many homes. The other problem with gas was that a building had to be retrofitted with the pipes leading from the street or basement, up through the house to wall and ceiling outlets.

In Brooklyn, the growth of row house neighborhoods and rapid new construction saw the instillation of gas mains under new streets, and homes outfitted with gas pipes and fixtures.

After 1872, coal gas was replaced by water gas, generated by superheated steam and anthracite coal or petroleum, and by the 1890’s almost all of the gas used in America was produced this way.

The majority of the new gas fixtures, called gasoliers, were ceiling fixtures or wall sconces. Most of the ceiling fixtures had long pipes that dropped at least two feet before branching out into a decorative shape.

The nature of the gas delivery, through the slender tubes of piping in the fixture gave rise to great style, with elaborate curved arms ending in upturned glass globes possible in many permutations, styles and materials.

Essentially, all gas fixtures work the same way: the flow of gas along the pipe to the burner is controlled by an adjustable gas cock. Turning the cock released the gas, which had to be lit, and gave rise to the phrase, “turning on the lights.”

The flame emerged at the end of the pipe, amplified and protected by the glass globe or shade covering the flame. For the first time, Victorian decor became static, as the previous practice of moving furniture to catch natural light was no longer desirable.

Furniture was now arranged to take advantage of the artificial light from above and on the walls, much of which could be in adjustable fixtures that moved up and down, or out away from a wall, as needed.

Some ceiling fixtures had a rubber hose that could be attached and dropped to a table, where a table lamp could be connected to the gas flow. But more often than not, people still depended on kerosene lamps for most of their table lighting.

The gas lighting period, which was in full swing during the High Victorian period of the 1870’s and 1880’s, gave us some of the most ornate and beautiful examples of metal and glasswork.

The glass globes used in these fixtures are still prized for their shapes, and use of elaborately etched, frosted, and patterned glass. Some of the largest and most ornate fixtures were made at this time, with the grand ballrooms of hotels and mansions sporting as many as twenty arms ending in beautiful glass globes.

Other long fixtures were similar to the crystal prism chandeliers with candles, now, as then, utilizing the reflective properties of the glass to amplify the brightness of the light.

But how did customers get their gas? The Brooklyn Gaslight Company was founded in 1825, folded, and then returned in the 1840’s to provide methane gas for streetlights.

By the 1890s, there were at least 15 different gas companies competing to serve the residential and business customers in Brooklyn, including Charles Pratt’s Nassau Gas and Light, whose monogram can still be found on their buildings in Clinton Hill.

In 1895, the seven most successful of these companies, including Brooklyn Gaslight and NG&L, merged to form Brooklyn Union Gas Company. Faced with turf and price wars, and the threat of electricity to their business, these companies wisely decided that a merger would be the only way to survive.

Electric light, once deemed an idea that would never catch on in any meaningful way, was taking over.

Next week: Lighting the world with electricity, and more.