August 16, 2024

"For a few decades after its introduction, the [gas] lighting radically altered the city, not only prolonging the period in which work could be productively carried out in the street..."

"... but also reversing expectations. Poor people, who could not afford to light their rooms, suddenly found the street lighter and brighter than their homes and occupied the streets at night in a manner that the authorities found disconcerting. A device conceived in part as a mechanism for control and crime prevention inadvertently encouraged a night-time economy not always considered desirable. Covent Garden, now a tourist centre, housed hundreds of much-frequented brothels and so-called coffee houses. On the other hand, prints from the 18th and 19th centuries also show people reading beneath the bright lights of the big city, saving their eyes from dim domestic candlelight."

Writes Edwin Heathcote, in "From pillar to lamp post: lighting city streets" (The Architectural Review).

The article is from 3 years ago. I found it this morning because I googled "history of lampposts" after looking through my morning fog pictures....

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... and saying out loud, "Remember when lampposts were beautiful?"

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60 comments:

Tom T. said...

The modern world is so blessed to be able to take electric light for granted. Life by candlelight is so painfully dim.

Hassayamper said...

Lamp posts have another use, touching on the relationship between the people and their would-be rulers, that isn’t resorted to often enough.

Paddy O said...

That's not how it happened

Kirk Parker said...

Paddy O., say more.

Hassayamper, to paraphrase Joe Steel: utilitarianism has a beauty all its own.

Kate said...

As a biphasic sleeper, I love the interplay of night lighting and the darkness. I've designed pools of light throughout the house. I never want to lose the mystery of the night, but I also like the touch of civilization and artistry.

Fun read. A lot of outdoor lighting these days is motion-sensored and garish. I'm envious of earlier efforts.

Quaestor said...

Beautiful, but not very illuminating -- much like Harvard's campus.

Curious George said...

The Architectural Review link doesn't work...at least for me.

I have a street light in front of my house. A few months ago they switched to LED, and got rid of the hideous yellow orange High pressure sodium bulbs

Dave Begley said...

The road from Omaha's airport to downtown has beautiful street lamps.

Curious George said...

In Florida outdoor lighting near the water has to be in the yellow/orange/red spectrum. These "turtle" lights are meant to not to confuse turtles hatched on the beach, who use moonlight reflecting on the ocean to direct them to the water.

Yancey Ward said...

I don't remember living in any place that didn't have an outdoor light on a utility pole and I grew up in the middle of nowhere- where I lived from age 8 to 22 had a big bright light on a power pole 30 feet from the house- we could play night basketball in its glow and did. However, my grandparents' house which was only a few miles away there were no outdoor lights within a quarter mile and those at that distance were obscured by the intervening forest- and the difference was startling- it was the best place to stargaze that I had a child and, if there was no Moon in the sky, it could be hazardous to walk around since we overestimate our ability to see in true dark.

Lawnerd said...

San Diego has a district (or at least had one when I was there in the late 90s) with gas street lamps. They were very elegant. And they had vendors selling hand rolled cigars.

gilbar said...

gas lights ran on Coal gas.. a fossil fuel - - EVIL!!
home kerosene lamps ran on another fossil fuel - - EVIL!!
electric lights ran on coal, and oil, and "natural" gas MORE fossil fuels - - EVIL!!
Now people want nuclear power - - EVEN MORE EVIL!!
Solar plants and wind turbines are DESIGNED to Kill birds - - EVIL!!

THE ONLY solution is to return to ALL NATURAL AND RENEWABLE whale oil..
For people that can afford it, that is.. For the great unwashed; darkness hides the dirt!

Big Mike said...

Perhaps the old lamp posts were beautiful, but did they do as good a job illuminating the walkways for the same amount of electricity consumed?

Josephbleau said...

“ The modern world is so blessed to be able to take electric light for granted. Life by candlelight is so painfully dim.”

Well, you know, what did communists use for light before candles? Electricity, man, right?

rehajm said...

Like most rich jerk communities of the south, our neighborhood has gas lamps..and a guy what goes around making sure they stay lit. Surprisingly they don't go out often...

tcrosse said...

We live in a golden age of gaslighting.

MadTownGuy said...

Lampposts still are, around here in South Central PA:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/madtownguy/53927165028/in/datetaken-public/

Ampersand said...

"A device conceived in part as a mechanism for control and crime prevention"

The device was conceived to make its inventors wealthy, in order to satisfy people's long standing desire to be happier by conveniently and inexpensively seeing more things more clearly after the sun went down. A small subsection of consumers wanted to use it for public security.

n.n said...

A mystical and serene scene.

Lilly, a dog said...

We have more than 100 Hershey Kiss street lamps on Chocolate Avenue. They've been there since 1963.

Michael K said...

Tucson is a "dark city" to avoid effects on the observatory on Kitt Peak. Very few street lights. Our area is absolute black at night.

Gerda Sprinchorn said...

Fog is something special. It fills up the night and makes it solid 3D instead of empty. Lampposts are an important part of the effect because you have to (somehwhat, kind of) see it to know its there.

Remember the old black and white movies about London with fog scenes that had a fog horn off in the distance? Someone (or some thing) always emerged from the fog.

Rocco said...

Gerda Sprinchorn said…
Remember the old black and white movies about London with fog scenes that had a fog horn off in the distance? Someone (or some thing) always emerged from the fog.

I hope I am never exposed to something emerging from some guy’s London Fog.

Unfortunately, the other London fog was a lot less appealing once you realize it was mostly a combination of industrial pollution and fumes from burning coal.

Quaestor said...

My little Southern town has about a mile of newly-manufactured retro-sytle lamposts along the two main streets that define the old downtown, which is curiously thriving in this age of suburban shopping (or is my home town in the post-suburban shopping age?) Did the pretty stanchions with their fluting and filigree make the success? Who can say?

Kevin Walsh said...

I differ with many about LED vs. yellow sodium. I found the latter warmer and more esthetic. LED lamps are harsh white and since there are no diffuser bowls, light is brightest directly under them and there are very dark stretches in between.

Static Ping said...

There are still places that use actual gas lamps. Even in the United States. It is more of an aesthetic than anything.

gadfly said...
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gadfly said...
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Narr said...

Perhaps it's mentioned in the article (AD wants me to consent to stuff, which I don't want to do) but up until the French Revolution one could hire light-bearers to help navigate the city in the dark.

(Ref. Joan DeJean, "How Paris Became Paris." An excellent book if you like urban or French history.

Narr said...

AR, not AD.

mikee said...

Sodium vapor lamps, LED lamps, gas lamps....
Give me Mercury vapor lamps with their harsh blue glow or give me the dark.

MadTownGuy said...

They are very classy!

Aggie said...

The first gas well was dug in Fredonia, NY in 1821, dug by hand to about 70 ft, and with the gas piped through hollowed-out logs. The Fredonia Gas Light company began distributing it in 1858 to several local shops, a tavern, and a grist mill, for lighting. The cities of Baltimore and Newport had begun gaslighting their streets a few years earlier (1818), using methane derived from coal tar, or coal distillation, just as the Brits were doing.

Ironically, the very first oil well was drilled less than 70 miles away from Fredonia, in Titusville, PA, in 1858 - ushering the modern petroleum age, and just in time, too - because the whaling industry had decimated worldwide stock of the mammal and a replacement oil for lighting purposes was desperately needed.

Jaq said...

We had a light like that about 30 ft from my bedroom window, and I hope the statute of limitations is past, because we used to shoot it out with a pellet gun pretty regularly.

traditionalguy said...

Lamplighters are a job for the city machine.

Bob Boyd said...

Remember when lampposts were suitable for hanging? MLSFHA!

Old and slow said...

Five generations of Flanagans have been responsible for lighting the gaslamps in Phoenix Park in Dublin. They are very beautiful. https://reynoldshistorycastleknockblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/14/gas-lamplighters-in-the-phoenix-park-local-history-castleknock/

Narayanan said...

soon coming to be repurposed with sublethal deterrence

Narayanan said...

now you can have personal lamppost! to do the job

Rusty said...

Let's bring back whale oil.

KellyM said...

Gaslamps are still used in certain neighborhoods in Boston; it was one of the things I loved about living there. You could see the little filaments flickering behind the plate glass day and night. During raging snowstorms, the light would give off a lovely soft glow as the flakes dipped and swirled.

Most of the streetlights in my neighborhood in SF have been converted to LED. Yes, it's harsher but doesn't seem to travel out from the fixture all that far which is rather nice. It does do an amazing job of illuminating the fog, of which we've had a goodly amount this summer. Depending on the wind direction I can often hear the foghorns at the Golden Gate Bridge tolling at night. Can't help but think of Sam Spade walking out of his office, trench coat collar turned up against the moisture, his fedora pulled low to keep the mist out of his eyes.

rehajm said...

I find quarts of it in some vintage watches..

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

That’s my idea of heaven.

Gospace said...

Ah: Economics and self-advancement enter the chat. Amazing how the desire to better one's self often makes things a little better fo9r everyone else.

One Fine Day said...

Urban planning delivered unexpected results? Gosh! What a surprise.

And yet modern urban planners have learned nothing but more hubris in their desire to control citizens by "shaping the urban landscape".

Gospace said...

Yellow sodium is mon-chromatic, and for most us, looks much dimmer then it's measured brightness. I intensely dislike sodium, and not a big fan of mercury vapor or metal halide lighting either. Every bulb currently in my house is daylight LED. White, bright, and brings out the colors in everything. LEDs are available in different spectrums. You should experiment with them.

Aggie said...

I am told that up until after WWII, US Army vehicles sometimes used a highly-refined whale oil in transmissions and differentials - as specification....

Mikey NTH said...

Beauty is bourgeois trash. The uglier the better for the revolution, for the more brutalized the urban landscape, the more prison-like, the more likely you will accept the brutalization of your mind.

Rusty said...

Back when I was a very young apprentice whale oil was an additive to cutting oil because it wasn't effected as much by heat like petrolum oil. It came in five gallon buckets and stunk.

rastajenk said...

Darkness Hides the Dirt sounds like a corollary to a newspaper's well-known motto.

Aggie said...

All Hail Fredonia !

William50 said...

From my teens - Hermans Hermits from 1966

Maynard said...

Tucson is a "dark city" to avoid effects on the observatory on Kitt Peak. Very few street lights. Our area is absolute black at night.

Yes. That is my only real complaint about moving here 6 years ago. I do not like driving in the dark.

Gaslights serve a purpose. It got Uncle Joe elected in 2020 and may get Kamala-lala-ding-dong elected in 2024.

I am only 71 and hoped to make into my early 90's. Not sure if that will be an option when the Soviet Democrats seize complete power. I need to up my alcohol consumption.

Josephbleau said...

I remember reading about poor college students in India that could not afford light to read their text books, so they went to main streets and studied on the sidewalks. The citys got upset over the unsightliness and turned off the lights at 10. So the poor kids had to work during the day and had limited study time and got bad grades compared to the rich kids.

That makes me kind of choke up a bit.

Narr said...

Back in the mid-60s our utility company started pushing heavily discounted gas lines for lamps and grills to homeowners. For a very modest price they would install gas lines wherever you wanted. We had a lamp by the front walkway and a grill just feet away from our back porch steps. My brothers and I grilled vast amounts of meat over the years, but at some point the grill was removed and the lamp converted to electricity.

Almost everyone got them at the same time, and ditched them at the same time.

Danno said...

Up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota where I summer, most of the lampposts on lesser-traveled roads and streets have been broken into and stripped of their copper wire. So much for preserving the beautiful river parkways.

Mikey NTH said...

It is possible to recreate the beauty of the old lamppost and install a more efficient lighting source.

Narr said...

The Chinese were drilling and piping petroleum and natural gas for miles to domestic and commercial users as early as the 1st C BC. They even had portable 'tanks' made of bamboo.

See RKG Temple, "Petroleum and Natural Gas as Fuel" (p. 89ff) in his finely illustrated book The Genius of China which is based on Joseph Needham's lifework. (It's on Internet Archive.)

Narayanan said...

thanks Narr for First Oil Wells China

Narayanan said...

in Bombay the 1950's I'd see lamplighter with pole turn on the gas at dusk and turn off at dawn and occasionally replace filament