Gas lighting

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Gas lighting is the process of burning piped natural gas or coal gas for illumination. Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most popular means of lighting in cities and suburbs. Early gas lights had to be lit manually but soon gas lights could light themselves.

Contents 1 History 2 Into the modern era 3 Other Usages 4 See also 5 References

History

Early lighting fuels consisted of olive oil, beeswax, fish oil, whale oil, sesame oil, nut oil, and similar substances. These were the most commonly used fuels until the late 18th century. The first known gas light was made by the ancient Chinese collecting natural gas in skins that was used for illumination.^{[citation needed]}

Public illumination preceded the discovery and adoption of gaslight by centuries. In 1417, Sir Henry Barton, mayor of London, ordained "lanterns with lights to be hanged out on the winter evenings between Hallowtide and Candlemasse." Paris was first lit by an order issued in 1524; and in the beginning of the sixteenth century the inhabitants were ordered to keep lights burning in the windows of all houses that faced the streets. In 1668, when some regulations were made for improving the streets of London, the residents were reminded to hang out their lanterns at the usual time; and in 1690 an order was issued to hang out a light, or lamp, every night as soon as it was dark, from Michaelmas to Christmas. By an act of the common council in 1716, all housekeepers, whose houses faced any street, lane, or passage, were required to hang out, every dark night, one or more lights, to burn from six to eleven o'clock, under the penalty of one shilling.

Coal and natural gases were known originally for their adverse effects rather than their useful qualities. Miners described two types, called the choke damp and the fire damp. In 1667 a paper detailing the effects of these was entitled, "A Description of a Well and Earth in Lancashire taking Fire, by a Candle approaching to it. Imparted by Thomas Shirley, Esq an eye-witness."

Dr. Stephen Hales was the first person who procured a flammable fluid from the actual distillation of coal. His experiments with this object are related in the first volume of his Vegetable Statics, published in 1726. From the distillation of "one hundred and fifty-eight grains [10.2 g] of Newcastle coal, he states that he obtained one hundred and eighty cubic inches [2.9 L] of air, which weighed fifty-one grains [3.3 g], being nearly one third of the whole." These results seemed to have passed without notice for several years.

In the "Philosophical Transactions" for 1733, some properties of coal-gas are detailed in a paper called, "An Account of the Damp Air in a Coal-pit of Sir James Lowther, sunk within Twenty Yards of the Sea." This paper, contained some striking facts relating to the flammability and other properties of coal gas.

The principal properties of coal-gas were demonstrated to different members of the Royal Society, and showed that after keeping the gas sometime, it still retained its flammability. Remarkably, the scientists of the time still saw no useful purpose for it.

John Clayton, in an extract from a letter in the "Philosophical Transactions" for 1735, calls gas the "spirit" of coal; and discovered its flammability by an accident. This "spirit" happened to catch fire, by coming in contact with a candle, as it escaped from a fracture in one of his distillatory vessels. By preserving the gas in bladders, he entertained his friends, by exhibiting its flammability.

The man who first utilised the flammability of gas for the practical application of lighting, was William Murdoch (sometimes spelt 'Murdock'), who worked for Matthew Boulton and James Watt at their Soho Foundry steam engine works. Murdoch began experimenting with various types of gas in the early 1790s, finally settling on coal gas as the most effective. In 1798 he used gas to light the main building of the Soho Foundry and in 1802 lit the outside in a public display of gas lighting, the lights astonishing the local population. One of the employees at the Soho Foundry, Samuel Clegg, saw the potential of this new form of lighting. Clegg left his job to set up his own gas lighting business, the Gas Lighting and Coke Company.

German inventor Freidrich Winzer (Winsor) was the first person to patent coal gas lighting in 1804 and a "thermolampe" using gas distilled from wood was patented in 1799.

In 1801, a M. Le Bon of Paris had also used gas lights to illuminate his house and gardens, and was considering how to light all of Paris. In 1820, Paris adopted gas street lighting.

In 1804, Dr. Henry delivered a course of lectures on chemistry, at Manchester, in which he showed the mode of producing gas from coal, and the facility and advantage of its use. Dr. Henry analyzed the composition and investigated the properties of carburetted hydrogen gas. His experiments were numerous and accurate and made upon a variety of substances; having obtained the gas from wood, peat, different kinds of coal, oil, wax, &c. he quantified the intensity of the light from each source.

Josiah Pemberton, a tireless inventor, had for some time been experimenting on the nature of gas. A resident of Birmingham, his attention was probably roused by the exhibition at Soho. About 1806, he exhibited gas-lights in a variety of forms and with great brilliance, at the front of his manufactory in Birmingham. In 1808 he constructed an apparatus, applicable to several uses, for Benjamin Cooke, a manufacturer of brass tubes, gilt toys, and other articles.

In 1808, Murdoch presented to the Royal Society a paper entitled "Account of the Application of Gas from Coal to Economical Purposes" an account of his successful application of coal gas to lighting the extensive establishment of Messrs. Phillips and Lea. For this paper he was awarded Count Rumford's gold medal. Murdoch's statements threw great light on the comparative advantage of gas and candles and contained much useful information on the expenses of production and management.

The first public street lighting with gas took place in Pall Mall, London on January 28, 1807. In 1812, Parliament granted a charter to the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company, and the first gas company in the world came into being. A few years later, on December 31, 1813, the Westminster Bridge was lit by gas.

As artificial lighting became more common, desire grew for it to become readily available to the public. This was in part because towns became much safer places to travel around after gas lamps were installed in the streets, reducing crime rates. In 1809, accordingly, the first application was made to parliament to incorporate a company in order to accelerate the process, but failed to pass. In 1810, however, the application was renewed by the same parties, and though some opposition was encountered and considerable expense incurred, the bill passed, but not without great alterations; and the London and Westminster Chartered Gas-Light and Coke Company was established. By 1816, Samuel Clegg obtained the patent for his horizontal rotative retort, his apparatus for purifying coal gas with cream of lime, and for his rotative gas meter and self-acting governor.

Following this success, gas lighting spread to other countries. In the United States, Baltimore in 1816 was the first city to light its streets with gas. The first introduction of gas lights in Rembrandt Peal's Museum in Baltimore in 1816 proved to be such a sensation and success that Peale quickly organized the first gas company in the United States and the city council passed an ordinance June 1816, permitted Peale to manufacture gas, lay pipes in the streets, and contract with the city for street lighting.

Among the economic impacts of gas lighting was to allow factories to work much longer hours. This was particularly important in Great Britain during the winter months when nights were significantly longer. Factories could even work continuously over 24 hours, resulting in increased production.

In this year, 1817, at the three stations belonging to the Chartered Gas Company, 25 chaldron (24 m³) of coal were daily carbonized, producing 300,000 cubic feet (8,500 m³) of gas, which was equal to the supply of 75,000 Argand lamps, each yielding the light of six candles. At the City Gas Works, in Dorset-street, Black-friars, the quantity of coal daily carbonized amounted to, three chaldron, which afforded a quantity of gas adequate to the supply of 1,500 Argand lamps; so that twenty-eight chaldron of coal were daily carbonized at that time, and 76,500 lights supplied by those two companies only.

At this period the principal object of attention in the manufacture of gas was its purification. Mr. D. Wilson, of Dublin, took out a patent for purifying coal gas by means of the chemical action of ammoniacal gas. Another plan was devised by Mr. Reuben Phillips, of Exeter, who obtained a patent for the purification of coal gas by the use of dry lime. Mr. G. Holworthy, in 1818, took out a patent for a method of purifying it by causing the gas, in a highly-condensed state, to pass through iron retorts heated to a dark red.

By 1823 numerous towns and cities throughout Britain were lit by gas. Costing up to 75% less than lighting produced by oil lamps or candles helped to accelerate its development and deployment. By 1859, gas lighting was to be found all over Britain and 1000 gas works had sprung up to meet the demand for the new fuel. The brighter lighting which gas provided allowed people to read more easily and for longer. This helped to stimulate literacy and learning, speeding up the second Industrial Revolution.

Oil gas appeared in the field as a rival of coal gas. In 1815, John Taylor had obtained a patent for an apparatus for the decomposition of oil and other animal substances; but the circumstance which more particularly attracted the public attention to oil gas was the erection of the patent apparatus at Apothecary's Hall, by Messrs. Taylors and Martineau.

In 1890, the invention of the gas mantle, attributed to the Austrian scientist Carl Welsbach eliminated the need for special illuminating gas to get bright shining flames.

In the early 20th century, most cities in the United States and Europe had gaslit streets. Gas lighting for streets gave way to low-pressure sodium, and high-pressure mercury, lighting in the 1930s. Small incandescent electric lamps began to replace gas lights in homes in the late 19th century, although the transition took decades to complete. See, for example, Rural electrification.

Into the modern era

Gas lighting has not disappeared completely from cities. The largest gas lighting network in Europe is believed to be that of Nottingham Park Estate in the centre of the English city of Nottingham. Cincinnati, Ohio still uses gaslight in many of its residential neighborhoods. Quite a few streets in central London, the Royal Parks and the exterior of Buckingham Palace remain gaslit. Many smaller streets in Berlin are still illuminated by gas mantle lights as are many neighborhoods in cities that are trying to recall a nostalgic effect, for example, Beacon Hill in Boston, Massachusetts, the entire town of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Many gas utility companies will still quote a fixed periodic rate for a customer-maintained gas lamp and homeowners still utilize such devices. However, the high cost of natural gas lighting[1] at least partly explain why a large number of older gas lamps have been converted to electricity.

Gas lighting is also seeing a resurgence in the luxury home market as a historical accuracy.

Other Usages

Gaslighting is also a term for a form of psychological abuse. This usage derives from the film Gaslight (1940) and its 1944 remake. Following the premise of the movies, gaslighting is a deliberate attempt to convince someone that they are losing their grasp on reality, usually in order to gain some advantage over them.

See also the Gaslight disambiguation page.

See also

• List of light sources

References

• The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. X, No. 290, dated Saturday, December 29, 1827. The full text is available at Project Gutenberg here.
• Open Door Website - 2nd Industrial Revolution
• Gas-Lite Manufacturing Company
• About.com - Light Inventors

Lighting and Lamps v • d • e
Incandescent:	Conventional - Halogen - Parabolic aluminized reflector (PAR)	Image:Compact fluorescent transpa.png
Fluorescent:	Compact fluorescent (CFL) - Linear fluorescent - Induction lamp
Gas discharge:	High-intensity discharge (HID) - Mercury-vapor - Metal-halide - Neon - Sodium vapor
Electric arc:	Arc lamp - HMI - Xenon arc - Yablochkov candle
Combustion:	Acetylene/Carbide - Candle - Gas lighting - Kerosene lamp - Limelight - Oil lamp - Safety lamp - Petromax
Other types:	Sulfur lamp - Light-emitting diode (LED) - LED lamp (SSL) - Fiber optics - Plasma - Electroluminescent wire

de:Gasbeleuchtung

nl:Gaslicht ja:ガス灯 pl:Lampa gazowa

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