Walkabout: Shine a Light, Part 3

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 of this story.

An open fire, candlelight, whale oil lamps, coal and petroleum derived kerosene, and coal or petroleum derived gas. All of these fuels gave task and decorative light to the homes of the 18th and 19th century.

Each successive lighting source represents not only the passage of time, but the advances of science. Someone figured out that beeswax and the wax derived from the stearin in animal fats made a candle that burned cleaner and brighter than tallow.

They also figured out that placing a candle in front of a reflective surface like silver or metal sheets, mirrored, or crystal glass, resulted in a brighter light.

In fact, the more candles and the more crystal, the better. In 1783, a Swiss scientist living in France named Francoise-Pierre Argand invented the tubular wick lamp.

Something so simple a principle as allowing air to travel through the center of the wick resulted in a brighter, cleaner burning oil lamp. Argand improved upon this by adding an oil reservoir that delivered a steady supply of oil, and a glass chimney, which further pooled oxygen into the wick area, causing a cleaner, brighter burn.

This lamp was introduced to America by Thomas Jefferson, who wrote from Paris to a friend in America, in 1784, that the Argand burner lamp gave off the light of six or eight candles.

In the 19th century, the diminishing supply of whale oil caused manufacturers to see alternative fuels. Lard was popular, as was what was called burning fluid, also known as camphene.

The latter was a combination of turpentine and alcohol, readily and cheaply distilled from corn and pine trees, which when burned, produced a clean, white flame.

Unfortunately, it had a tendency to explode or burst into flame, and many people were burned or killed. By the Civil War, whale oil, lard and camphene were almost totally replaced by kerosene.

Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist, and a British chemist by the name of James Young share the credit for inventing kerosene, in the late 1840’s, early 1850’s, albeit thousands of miles apart. Both distilled coal to produce kerosene.

By the 1860’s, oil wells were being tapped to produce the raw materials for kerosene production. This led to the discovery of another petroleum and coal byproduct, gas. And the rest, as they say, is history. But what kind of light are we talking about here? A very different light that what we expect today.

We’ve all seen period movies and television. Or we’ve been without electricity in blackouts, storms, or the failure to pay the electric bill. A single candle’s light is not all that much light. It barely illuminates the dark.

A table light that put out the light of 6 candles must have looked like a halogen lamp to Jefferson and the people of the late 18th century.

Candles, oil, kerosene and gas lights put out a lot of soot. While each successive invention resulted in cleaner and brighter light than before, they still were dirty, and darkened ceilings, walls and fabric.

Lesser grades of fuel also smelled. When gas lighting was in full swing, many people complained of the heat and lack of oxygen in a room with large, or many gas fixtures.

Many well to do people refused to have gas fixtures in their dining rooms for that reason, and relied on candle lit chandeliers and candelabras.

Gas, the brightest of these pre-electric lights, was still very dim, compared to modern electricity. If a modern homeowner wants to use period style or electrified original gas lights (gasoliers) in their home, and lights the room as if it was still the mid-19th century, the light bulbs should be no greater than 10 to 15 watts each. Not 60 watts or even 25…15 watts.

So here we are at electricity, and of equal importance, the incandescent lamp, which is the industry term for the light bulb. 19th century inventors already knew about electricity.

Remember Ben Franklin and the kite, back in the 18th century? There were many such experiments and experimenters in both Europe and the US.

By the 1870’s, the problem was in trying to figure out how to deliver the electricity to a filament bulb that would be able to stay on for a long period of time without the filament being consumed. By 1878, Thomas Edison had figured it out.

He was not the first person to invent the incandescent bulb, but he was the first to put the whole system together; the generator, the main and feeder, and the parallel distribution system.

He also designed the switches, the wiring and the bulbs. He also figured out how to do it economically, and that also made all the difference in the world.

By 1882, the Edison Electric Light Company was founded in New York City, and our love/hate affair with Con Ed began.

Earlier, in 1879, Edison filed a patent for his carbon filament bulb. After much experimentation he arrived at a carbonized bamboo filament that would last 1200 hours.

The incandescent light bulb makes light by heating a metal filament wire until it glows. The filament is encased in a glass bulb that is filled with inert gas, or a vacuum.

The heat is provided by an electrical current that is conducted through the socket of the lighting fixture into metal wires embedded in the glass.

Early light bulbs were not bright, even though the bulbs at this time were clear glass. That is why many early electric light fixtures feature bare bulbs. (There was also the factor of the new people wanted everyone to see they had the new electric bulbs, or were wired for electricity itself.)

Today, those fixtures are not as nearly as popular as they once were. We don’t like to see a bare bulb, that’s a sign of poverty or bad taste, unless one has expensive period-style reproduction bulbs.

But often these fixtures are misunderstood, when people use modern high wattage bulbs in them. They were meant to have low wattage, soft and dim bulbs, a much more pleasing and period-correct light.

It wasn’t until 1907-1911, when the tungsten filament bulb was invented, that bulbs became so bright that they needed glass globes, glass, and/or fabric shades to diffuse the brighter light.

Before electric lamps totally replaced gas, there was a period when hybrid lamps were in fashion. This produced some very attractive ceiling fixtures, as well as sconces and the occasional table lamp.

This was actually a prudent move, as many homes did not have a steady electrical source, and gave a homeowner the choice to use one or both forms of light.

In these fixtures, called gasolier-electroliers, the electric lights point downward, while the gas lights face upward, for obvious reasons. Sometimes both fixtures would point upward, but the former was usually the norm.

Today, these fixtures are still quite desirable for an authentic period look, and the gas fixtures have also been converted to electricity.

The new electroliers and advances in electric light lead to a huge explosion of creative shapes, materials and forms. The early 20th century produced some of the most beautiful and ingenious lamps and light fixtures in the history of lighting, many of which are still copied and made today, as popular as when they first were made. Next time turn on the lights.