NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Gaslighting in America A Guide for Historic Preservation

Obviously, gas must be lighted before it can illuminate. While it was easy enough to light a gas wall bracket fixture with a match, chandelier burners were not quite so conveniently accessible. Almost every household using gaslight had what the McKenney and Waterbury catalogue described as a "torch and key lighter," an implement like the one shown here. The "key" was a bifurcated flange designed to grasp a gas key and turn it on or off. The "torch" was a wax taper that could be slid up and down within a metal tube. It worked precisely the way the taper lighters used to ignite altar candles in churches work today. As most chandeliers were hung no more than 7 feet off the floor, almost all lighting and extinguishing of gas burners was done by using lighters like this one. Even chandeliers in places with very high ceilings could be lighted or put out with long-handled torch and key lighters.

Very large and inaccessible fixtures like the huge multijetted chandeliers that hung in some theater auditoria presented special problems. Some had water seal stems, or "pillars," and could be raised and lowered by windlasses like the over 6-ton bronze gas chandelier of 1875 in the Paris Opera. Others, probably because of the difficulty of counterweighting very heavy fixtures, were fixed in position. Therefore, various attempts to light such chandeliers with electric sparks were made. On December 22, 1857, a patent was issued to S. Gardiner, Jr. for a device worked by magnets for "turning on or shutting off inflammable gas by degrees, or gradually, through the agency of electricity," in other words, a gas switch. There is no evidence that it was ever widely adopted for use. On March 30, 1858, the same Mr. Gardiner patented "placing a coil of platinum wire, or its equivalent, in the relative position to the jet or gas described, for the purpose of lighting the jet by electricity, and for re-igniting it when blown out. . ." The current was supplied by a galvanic battery. Gardiner demonstrated his device at the U. S. Capitol and "found that 1,500 burners in the U. S. Senate Chamber at Washington required three seconds to light, including turning on the gas." [159] The inventor's triumph was evidently short-lived, however, as the lighting installation by Cornelius and Baker above the inner skylight of the Senate Chamber, like its counterpart in the House of Representatives, was henceforth lighted "from a small perpetual burner," or pilot light. [160]

Archilaus Wilson devised an igniting system using a Ruhmkorff coil instead of a galvanic battery. He reported on his patent gaslighter before the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on March 15, 1860, claiming to have overcome such difficulties as the decreasing efficiency of voltaic batteries, fusion of wires, encrustation of wires by soot, cooling of wires by draughts, and failure through the breakage of wires. His list of problems, overcome or not, suggests the flaws common to most electric spark lighting devices of the time. Wilson stated that his invention had lighted a 56-light chandelier "several times with complete success." [161]

In 1861 the Franklin Institute reported yet another gaslighting device as follows:

Mr. Meyers, of Messrs. Mitchell, Vance and Company, New York, exhibited a neat sample of an apparatus for lighting gas by electricity. The machine consists of a small glass disk, which revolves between two pads of leather, and gives the generated electricity to points, which are in communication with a brass rod about 12 inches long terminating in a ball. An insulated handle is attached to the lower part of the instrument. A piece of wire, attached to a sheath which slips over the burner, is so adjusted that a spark given to it from the ball of the gas lighter passes through the jet of flowing gas and instantly inflames it. [162]

Whether Meyer's gadget was any more successful than Gardiner's or Wilson's has not been ascertained. It is clear, however, that the electric spark method, applied in some way or other, was used after about 1860 to light large and hard to reach chandeliers.

Courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum, Loris S. Russell Collection. (click on image for a PDF version)

The Peoples Gas Company of Baltimore began operations in 1870, the year it was lithographed in color by A. Hoen for the advertisement reproduced here. This building was closed down in 1881. Located in southwest Baltimore, the plant was served by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, whose coal cars were shunted to the long retort house at the right, where gas was made by reducing the coal to coke. The gas was then piped to be purified by lime in the building at the left, after which it was piped to be distributed from the circular gas-holder, or "gasometer," at the far left. [163]

This medium-sized gas plant is typical in appearance of many built throughout the United States during the middle of the 19th century. The long, low brick structures with their monitor roofs resembled those of many other plants, but the immense tank that rose and fell within its tall columnar supports was, of course, a feature unique to gas plants. The tank was constructed of riveted iron plates and was immersed in water at its base. Later gasholders abandoned pseudo-classical columnar supports in favor of plainer ones. A few gasholders were housed in circular brick structures primarily as a precaution against extreme cold. [164]

Many American gashouse neighborhoods looked rather like this one in Baltimore. What the Hoen lithograph does not convey is the sickening stench that made such neighborhoods so noisome. Before lime was given up as a purifying agent in favor of "washers" and "scrubbers" it became extremely foul when saturated with impurities from the gas. It was the used lime rather then the sulfurous odor of the gas itself that made gashouse districts so unpleasant. Such neighborhoods were therefore sometimes inhabited by the least savory elements of the population, tough habitual brawlers and unskilled but nonetheless dangerous criminals. [165]

Although a few isolated instances of gaslighting had occurred in America very early in the century, it was not until 1817 that the first company for the manufacture and distribution of illuminating gas was chartered here. [166] The honor of that priority belongs to Baltimore. It has often been stated that the use of gas for lighting did not become widespread in the United States until after the Civil War. That is simply not true. By 1840 there were 11 gaslight companies already chartered, and by 1850 the number had risen to 51. The next decade saw a phenomenal advance, for by 1860 there were 362 companies in the country. [167]

By January 1, 1862, 420 chartered gaslight companies were listed in a compilation made by John B. Murray, a New York dealer in gaslight shares. One of the companies was reported to be making wood gas, three were making water gas and 30 were making rosin gas. All the rest, 386 out of 420 companies, were manufacturing coal gas. [168] As of June 15, 1863, Murray listed 433 chartered companies in this country and 23 in the British Provinces of North America soon to be joined together by the Canadian Confederation of 1867. Aurora, Indiana, was reported to have changed from "Sanders' Water-Gas" to coal gas; and Cold Spring, New York, had changed from rosin gas to coal gas. Scranton, Pennsylvania, was about to try water gas; and the companies at Fishkill, New York, and Smyrna, Delaware, were making petroleum gas. Most significant in the light of future developments was the note that one company, at Freedonia, New York, drew upon an "unlimited supply of natural gas." The gas works at Hoboken, New Jersey, were "not yet built;" and the company at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, was "said to be a fraud." Murray remarked that "Jeff. Davis has extinguished the gas-light of Richmond, Virginia;" and of Williamsburg, Virginia he said, "Camp-fires of the Union Army light this place at present." [169]

It will readily be seen from the statistics cited above that most of the gas manufactured was coal gas and that its use was certainly extensive before the Civil War. The geographical distribution of the chartered companies shows, however, that gas was little used in some areas and heavily used in others. The 433 companies listed by Murray on June 15, 1863, were distributed as follows: 4 in Alabama, 1 in Arkansas, 9 in California, 15 in Connecticut, 4 in Delaware, 1 in the District of Columbia, 1 in Florida, 6 in Georgia, 13 in Illinois, 10 in Indiana, 6 in Iowa, 1 in Kansas, 6 in Kentucky, 2 in Louisiana, 13 in Maine, 7 in Maryland, 58 in Massachusetts, 10 in Michigan, 1 in Minnesota, 4 in Mississippi, 4 in Missouri, 10 in New Hampshire, 21 in New Jersey, 84 in New York, 8 in North Carolina, 35 in Ohio, 1 in Oregon, 53 in Pennsylvania, 7 in Rhode Island, 3 in South Carolina, 4 in Tennessee, 3 in Texas, 8 in Vermont, 10 in Virginia, 1 in West Virginia and 9 in Wisconsin. [170] Clearly, the heavily industrialized states had the most gas plants, with Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania far in the lead. As one would expect, the thickly settled areas had the gas plants and the rural districts depended upon lamps and candles or, for very grand establishments, gas machines (see Appendix).

From the Commercial Credit Company Collection, Baltimore, photograph courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland. (click on image for a PDF version)

The first gasmeters known to have been made in the United States were manufactured by Samuel Hill in Baltimore about 1832. John Rodger, a Baltimore machinist working under the supervision of John M. Slaney, made the second meter known, probably in the year 1832. The third American gasmeter maker is said to have been one C. Young of New York, who produced his meter around 1835. The fourth maker was the firm of Colton and Code around 1839 in Philadelphia. [171] On October 7, 1834, James Bogardus of New York obtained a patent for a gasmeter. It was made of cast iron, and "its exterior form is that of an oval shade, such as are put over time pieces, the longest diameter of which is about nine inches, its shortest six or seven, and its height fourteen." [172] Bogardus's meter, from its description, appears to have been a dry gasmeter operating on a bellows, or diaphragm principle, although dry meters are commonly said to have supplanted wet meters only in 1844 or thereafter. James Bogardus (1800-1874) is best known for his important role in the development of cast-iron buildings in America.

Albert Potts of Philadelphia patented a meter on July 5, 1859, for which new convenience was claimed.

The advantage of this improvement consists in the facility with which the Meters may, at any time, be inspected by the Agents of the Gas Company without necessarily being obliged to enter the premises . . . the meter is nicely adjusted to an auxiliary case which is imbedded in the Front Wall of the Building. . . . With this improvement the Meter is less liable to Freeze in Winter season, as the inside portion of the Receptacle is exposed to the heat from the Parlor or Room. . . .

Evidently Pott's scheme was not very widely adopted, as most gasmeters remained housed entirely indoors. The gasmeters in the U.S. Treasury Department Building in Washington, D.C., were kept from freezing by the addition of alcoholic spirits, four gallons of which were requisitioned for this purpose in 1852. [173]

Most gasmeters were plain and strictly ulititarian objects and were placed in basements, cellars, or service areas of buildings. Occasionally, however, meters were ornamented and placed in parlors. The example illustrated here is painted a bright red and decorated with painted putti and roses stencilled in gilt. It was manufactured by William Wallace Goodwin (1833-1901), a Philadelphia maker who founded W. W. Goodwin and Company about 1872. [174] Goodwin was granted a dry gasmeter patent (no. 76,908) on April 21, 1868, and that patent date was subsequently antedated to November 5, 1867. [175] The patent was for the mechanism, not for the ornamentation. This extraordinary object was found on a decorative shelf in the parlor of a house on Walnut Street in Philadelphia. It is analogous, in a way, to other fancily painted mechanical devices of its period. Americans took great pride in their ingenious gadgets, and just about every new invention, from sewing machines to railroad locomotives, had ornamentation lavished upon them.

From the private collection of James M. Goode, Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution photograph. (click on image for a PDF version)

Exterior lighting in general and street lighting by gas in particular have not been considered in the preceding text and illustrations, because they constitute a separate subdivision of the principal subject under consideration, i.e., the lighting of buildings by gas. Essentially, differences of practicality, purpose, and use divided exterior from interior gaslighting.

Until after 1890, the usual gas street lamp in American cities and towns was similar to the example shown here, a cast-iron standard of comparatively simple design surmounted by a square glass lantern enclosing a batswing burner. Frequently, as on this Washington, D. C., lamppost, seen in a detail from an 1865 photograph by one of Matthew Brady's staff named Smith, there was a crossbar below the lantern against which the lamplighter's ladder was steadied. Lampposts were made of iron cast in a variety of plain and fancy patterns. Usually, they were standardized in various neighborhoods, as evident from old photographic city or town views such as this, which provide valid information respecting the design of the lampposts formerly used in specific locales. Fortunately, modern recastings from molds taken off old fixtures are, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from old castings. (When researching for a restoration, be sure that the lampposts in an old view were in use at the time to be rep resented.)

Occasionally, the cost of a post was saved by running a pipe up the side of a building and cantilevering a lantern out on a bracket attached to the building's corner. Corner lamps, whether on posts or attached to buildings, often had translucent glass sections set in the upper rims of the lanterns on which street names were lettered. Most major iron foundries made street lamps. Morris, Tasker and Company of Philadelphia made lampposts that differed only in minor details from this Washington example. [176] The most noticeable difference between this fixture and a number of Philadelphia examples was that the latter had finials in the form of eagles atop their lanterns.

The limited amount of light that was normal until the introduction of the Welsbach burner would not be tolerated within the limits of any American municipality today. Considerations of safety alone preclude that. In a number of "gas-light districts" that have recently been established for "atmosphere," it has been the invariable practice to provide more lamp standards (almost always with mantles instead of flat-flame burners) than would ever have been the case on even the best-lighted 19th century streets, often with auxiliary electric street lighting as well. In attempting to recreate early gas street lighting, major compromises are essential. It is probably only under museum conditions that really authentic gaslighting of the kind in use before ca. 1890 can be installed.

Unfortunately, many modern gas street lamps are not provided by suppliers, especially gas companies, with any means for turning them off. A street lamp left burning during the light hours of the gas era would have been an anomaly indeed!

From the Library of Congress, the Brady Collection. (click on image for a PDF version)

Theaters, saloons, dance halls and other places of evening public entertainment frequently supplemented the feeble municipal street lighting with lighting of their own that served for advertising as well as illumination of the exterior stairs and curb. This photograph of the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, taken by John McAllister in 1860, shows two large-scaled gas lanterns supplied by the management as well as a standard Philadelphia street lamp with eagle finial. The two theater lanterns are typical of those used in front of many places of public resort. Note the difference in scale between the lighting fixtures provided by the theater and that provided by the city.

Courtesy of The Free Library of Philadelphia, the Castner Collection. (click on image for a PDF version)

A single large gas lantern once stood before the central entrance of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C. When the theater was restored by the National Park Service and reopened in 1968, a new gas lantern, scaled and proportioned according to the evidence contained in old photographs, was erected to replace the long-vanished original. Shown here during installation on the post, the new lantern reproduces the original one and is slightly over 5 feet in height.

A compromise with strict historical accuracy was made with respect to the burners in order to meet modern lighting requirements. The burners now in use resemble Argand burners without chimneys and were specially developed by the Welsbach Company to give a greater intensity of light than any standard open flame burner. As gas mantles would have been obvious anachronisms, the needed amount of light was obtained by stretching wires across the path of the open flame. The wires are not visible from the street level, yet they become incandescent and thus emit the needed light. [177] The lamppost itself was cast from a mold taken of an original post of the same pattern as that shown in old photographs of Ford's Theatre.

National Park Service Photograph. (click on image for a PDF version)

Lampposts illuminating private driveways were never very common, but a few examples installed during the last century have been recorded. The example shown here stood until 1937 beside the carriage drive in the grounds of the Valentine-Fuller House, built in 1848 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The octagonal post is perhaps slightly more elaborate than standard street lampposts in use around 1850. But the lamp itself is decidedly more ornate than the square lanterns used for street lighting. Fancy octagonal lantern forms, when used outdoors, were found only in association with major public buildings or private installations of gaslighting. Note the suggestion of chinoiserie in the pagoda-like form of the lamp's finial.

From the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey [Mass-283A] by Richard Ruggles. (click on image for a PDF version)

Between 1890 and 1900 street lighting was radically improved by the widespread introduction of the Welsbach burner. Simultaneously, the old square lantern type of lamp was replaced by the white-domed cylindrical type seen here. Cylindrical glass was easier to clean than the four sides of a square lantern, and it would not crack in proximity to a flame that was confined within a gas mantle. The white glass dome was also a substantial improvement, as it reflected the light downward, where it was wanted. The new fixtures were normally mounted on already existing posts, as was the case with the light shown here in a detail from a 1905 photograph of the south front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The post, which has a complex base composed of alternating square and circular elements of Eastlake detailing and a rather Baroque spirally twisted shaft, appears to date from around 1876. It is much more elaborate than normal street light standards, as it is one of a series designed to light the walkways of Independence Square, the park-like setting of one of America's principal historic structures. After 1900 the type of lamp seen here became ubiquitous in America, and the older lantern form of street lamp all but totally disappeared. [178]

From the Library of Congress. (click on image for a PDF version)

The principal entrances of important public buildings were often flanked by ornamental lamp standards, but certainly few were as elaborate as the pair seen here in a photograph taken during the Civil War by one of Matthew Brady's staff. This pair once lighted the south entrance steps of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, and the building's other three axial entrances had pairs of cast-iron lamp standards identical with these. All were cast by the Philadelphia foundry of Wood and Perrot by 1859, the year the capitol was completed. Their designer is unknown. The figures grouped around the columnar shafts represent morning, noon, and night. [179] Groups of large-sized figures such as these have not been recorded in association with any other light standards in America and were probably unique to the Nashville examples.

Although the cluster of three figures standing on their hexagonal base and surrounding a column of the composite order gives an effect of considerable richness, that effect is diminished by the fact that all the sculptural groups are identical and therefore clearly produced from casting molds rather than from the white marble they are intended to resemble. Note the complex glazing pattern of the lavishly ornamented octagonal lanterns and the figurines that form their finials. As often happens with the changing tastes of the times, those splended lampposts were all discarded during modernization of the Tennessee Capitol.

From the Library of Congress, the Brady Collection. (click on image for a PDF version)

The cast-iron exterior lamps and brackets flanking the portico of the Presbyterian Church of 1833 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in this photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, may be the only surviving examples of their particular type in America. The local gaslight company in Fredericksburg was chartered in 1854, and this pair of lamps probably dates from that year. Exterior lighting actually attached to buildings (aside from some corner street lamps) was not common, except for standards on plinths flanking entrances. These bracketed lamps in Fredericksburg are further noteworthy because they closely resemble the pairs of lamps that were attached to the outermost columns of the north portico of the White House in Washington from around 1848 until McKim, Mead and White's renovations of 1902. It should be noted, however, that the entrances of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, completed in 1857, were lighted by similar bracketed lamps, now replaced by modern replicas. The entire facade of the Boston "Museum," a theater built in 1846, was lighted by tiers of gas brackets, a highly exceptional treatment. [180]

There was at least one instance of a shop with extensive exterior illumination. A Duval lithograph illustrating the cover of "The New Costume Polka" with a view of The Lee and Walker's Music Store in Philadelphia was published in 1851 and dedicated to Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, the dress reformer. The rail of the balcony balustrade that runs across the facade is topped by at least seven gaslights with large globular shades.

Indirect exterior lighting was actually in use as early as 1838. The diarist Philip Hone, once Mayor of New York City, writing about architect William Strickland's Second Bank of the United States on February 14, 1838, entered the following passage in his journal:

The portico of this glorious edifice, the sight of which always repays me for coming to Philadelphia, appeared more beautiful to me this evening than usual, from the effect of the gaslight. Each of the fluted columns had a jet of light from the inner side so placed as not to be seen from the street, but casting a strong light upon the front of the building the softness of which, with its flickering from the wind, produced an effect strikingly beautiful. [181]

From the Library of Congress, Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection. (click on image for a PDF version)