Walkabout: Shine a Light, Part 1

Read Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 of this story.

Sunlight, a flickering fireplace flame, a twisted piece of string in a pool of oil, candles, whale oil lamps, kerosene, gas, and electricity. One or more of these methods of providing illumination have been used in all of our Brooklyn homes, historic or not.

If we live in an older home, we often forget how these homes were originally lit, and how that affected the paint colors used, the fabrics, and furnishings, those entire original details that many of us treasure today.

We could live in the oldest houses in Brooklyn, but now we go in a room and flick on the electric lights, which light up the darkest corners, places that would never have seen the light in the past.

What kind of lighting did our period homes have when they were first built? If we want to stay true to the style, or have a period restoration, what kind of lighting did brownstones have?

With the exception of the very early Dutch homesteads of the 1600-1700’s, the earliest surviving homes in Brooklyn were built in the early 1800’s such as the frame houses of Brooklyn Heights.

Lighting in these homes would have been provided by candlelight, whale oil lamps and kerosene lamps. Candlelight was an accepted form of lighting well into the mid-1800’s.

The best candles were made of beeswax, or bayberry wax, and later, tallow from the stearin extracted from animal fats. Candlelight was easily portable, and many families well into the 19th century relied on candlelight for task lighting, such as sewing, reading and other close work.

Among the better off classes, chandeliers and larger brass and metal lighting fixtures with multiple candles remained popular for dining and mood lighting, something that has not changed for many people, even today.

Cut glass crystal pendants, bobeches and beaded, swagged chandeliers graced the rooms of the wealthy, the reflective surfaces studded with multiple candles not only providing beauty, but also better lighting.

Smaller fixtures were used on mantles and tables for the same purposes, as were sconces with reflective backs. Today, reproduction lighting fixtures that use flickering candlelight bulbs are often used in period appropriate rooms, and fixtures with artificial candles are still very popular.

In general, and for most people, candlelight left most of the room in shadow or darkness. This fact, not always considered by modern people when planning a period style room, meant that lighter colors were used by people of that period for good reason, as were clean lines and unfussy decor.

By the mid-1800’s, candlelight was generally relegated to dining rooms, as first whale, and other oil burning lamps were developed, followed by kerosene lamps. Kerosene is a by-product of coal and petroleum production.

When the first oil wells were dug in Pennsylvania in 1859, the age of petroleum had begun, and it was literally fueled by the demand for lighting fuel.

Kerosene helped promote the rapid growth of the railroads, and by the Civil War, kerosene was the fuel of choice, supplanting whale oil, lard and other animal fats.

The refining process, which in Brooklyn, made Charles Pratt extremely rich, produced a clean burning and relatively safe fuel which lit the homes and buildings of Brooklyn well into the end of the century.

Kerosene lamps were used as ceiling fixtures and sconces, but the greatest use was as a table lamp. We are all familiar with what is now called the Gone With the Wind lamp, a round bowl, holding the kerosene and the wick, often of etched or painted glass, with a tall, clear glass chimney piece, around which sits another round etched or painted glass shade.

This basic shape, with variations, was as familiar on a desk or table throughout the mid 1800’s, as today’s industrial-style flexible desk lamp. They could also be placed in cast iron sconce holders, lighting walls and providing lighting for reading and other tasks.

These lamps were used in our early brownstones, the Greek and Gothic Revival, Italianate, Anglo-Italianate and Neo-Grec styles. Even when gas lighting became the dominant lighting, kerosene was still in use.

One should always remember that as in most things today, just because something new comes out, that doesn’t mean the old is completely forgotten or was no longer used.

Kerosene lighting was still being manufactured as late as the 1890’s, when gas was on its way out, and electricity was being introduced. We still use it today as a novelty, but many people keep kerosene lamps for emergency lighting.

Speaking of overlapping, while kerosene was in its heyday as an indoor lighting source, gas was already in use in many cities as a lighting source for outdoor street lamps, and for use in commercial and public buildings.

Baltimore had the first gas street lighting system in 1817, followed by other American cities. By 1840, gas had been introduced inside the home, but it was not popular, and was regarded to be smelly and unpleasant.

Kerosene was the preferred fuel, and it would be much later that gas would be the dominant lighting fuel in our homes.

Thursday: Gas and electricity, and more on the effects of period lighting and authentic decor.