page_title: Gas lighting
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Gas lighting / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Lighting through the ages. Antiquity: 1. Prehistory. - 2-3. Egyptian - 4-5. Assyrian. 6-13. Roman. - 14-15. Carthaginian. - 16-17. Merovingian period. - Middle age and modern times: 19-20. 11th century. - 21. 12th century. - 22. 13th century. - 23-24. 14th century. - 25-26-27. 15th century. - 28. 16th century. - 29. 17th century. - 30-31. 18th century. - Contemporary period: 32. (original) Argand lamp. - 33-34. (Antoine Quinquet's improved) Argand lamp . - 35. Stephenson (Geordie) lamp (mines). - 36. Street light. - 37. Davy lamp. - 38. Air-fed wick lamp (theatre). - 39. Railway lamp. - 40. Carcel lamp. - 41. Gasifier. - 42. Auer (gas) lamp with gas mantle. - 43. Gas street lighting (regular burner). - 44. Gas street lighting (high intensity burner). - 45. Auer (petrol) lamp. - 46. (Air-fed) petrol lamp. - 47. Incandescent (electricity). - 48. Lighthouse (electricity). - 49. Mine lamp (electricity). - 50. Incandescent (electricity) [street light]. - 51. Arc light (electricity). - 52. Acetylene lamp (burner). - 53. Acetylene lamp (bycicle). - 54. Acetylene lamp (lamp). - Japan: 55. Street light. - 56. Transportation (rickshaw). - 57. Lantern for funerals. - 58. Portable lantern.
context_page_description: Gas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas.
  The light is produced either directly by the flame, generally by using special mixes of illuminating gas to increase brightness, or indirectly with other components such as the gas mantle or the limelight, with the gas primarily functioning as a fuel source.
  Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most popular method of outdoor and indoor lighting in cities and suburbs. Early gas lights were ignited manually, but many later designs are self-igniting.
  Gas lighting now is generally used for camping, where the high energy density of a hydrocarbon fuel, combined with the modular nature of canisters allows bright and long lasting light to be produced cheaply and without complex equipment. In addition, some urban historical districts retain gas street lighting, and gas lighting is used indoors or outdoors to create or preserve a nostalgic effect.
context_section_description: 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. Chinese records dating back 1,700 years note the use of natural gas in the home for light and heat via bamboo pipes to the dwellings. The ancient Chinese of the Spring and Autumn period made the first practical use of natural gas for lighting purposes around 500 B.C. where they used bamboo pipelines to transport and carry both brine and natural gas for many miles, such as the ones in Zigong salt mines.
  Public illumination preceded the discovery and adoption of gaslight by centuries. In 1417, Sir Henry Barton, Lord Mayor of London, ordained "lanterns with lights to be hung 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 16th 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 as a fine for failing to do so.
  In coal mining, accumulating and escaping gases were known originally for their adverse effects rather than their useful qualities. Coal miners described two types of gases, one called the choke damp and the other fire damp. In 1667, a paper detailing the effects of these gases 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."
  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 of the Royal Society in 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 some time, it still retained its  flammability.  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.
caption: An overview of lighting technology, circa 1900
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