NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Gaslighting in America A Guide for Historic Preservation

This photograph taken around 1906 by the noted architectural photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) shows the parlor in the house of the famous reformer and women's suffrage advocate Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906). The small and inexpensive three-branched chandelier appears to date from the 1870s and was evidently inadequate in its original form, as its owner made three improvements. The burners first supplied with this cheap little fixture were no doubt standard iron fishtails. The burner at the left appears to be a governor burner, an expensive type, and probably the shade of the 1880s type replaced an earlier shade when the improved burner was installed. Another improvement, the reflector behind the burner in the background, was designed to throw a more adequate light upon the painting above the mantelpiece. The third and most important improvement was the installation of the Welsbach burner in the foreground. Note the chains hanging from the little bar that controlled the flow of gas to the mantle. Often such chains are mistaken for electric light pulls when seen in old photographs. When two are visible as close together as in this photo, it indicates that they were used with a gas mantle. The crimped white glass shade helped to direct the light downward, where it was most needed.

As was the case with the introduction of wide-necked shades, so it was with Welsbach burners, i.e., many older fixtures were updated with the new and more efficient type of burner. By the turn of the century gas mantles were commonplace, although many flat flame burners were still being made. A photograph taken in 1902 of the Boston studio occupied by the prominent designer-craftsman Isaac Elwood Scott (1845-1920) shows Welsbach burners very similar to the one used by Miss Anthony.

A picture of a New York City barber shop taken in 1903 by the photographic firm headed by Joseph Byron shows lighted Welsbach burners and electric filament bulbs in combination on the same fixtures. [154]

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

A technical report written in 1908 describes an innovation in gaslighting.

The latest modification of incandescent gas lighting, introduced in 1905, consists in the use of inverted burners. The inverted gas burners throw the light downward and hence do not cast shadows; the mantles are shorter and hence do not break quite so easily; the light given off is better and stronger, and the gas consumption is less. For these reasons the inverted incandescent gas lamp has quickly proven successful, and its popularity is bound to increase. . . . [155]

That passage had a sanguine note about it, predicting increasing popularity for inverted incandescent burners. Their popularity did indeed increase among gas users, but by then electricity was advancing so fast in popularity that it was almost too late for any further improvements in gaslighting.

One other effort was made to compete successfully with electric light. In 1899 the Swiss inventor Conrad Adolfe Weber-Marti of Zurich patented "an improved device for opening and closing low pressure conduits for gas from a distant point of actuation," in other words, a gaslight switch. That invention was improved by Neville Edwards in 1906 and again in 1909, but there is no evidence that gas switches were used to any extent in this country. [156]

This chandelier, now in the Smithsonian Institution Furnishings Collection, appears to date from the 1880s. Two of its four branches (all now electrified) were later adapted for use with inverted incandescent burners. The mantles were approximately the size of the small electric bulbs that have replaced them. Note that small glass globes were used, and that chains controlled the valves admitting gas to the mantles. The amount of light could thus be precisely managed.

Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution. (click on image for a PDF version)

At an undetermined date, the McKenney and Waterbury Company, a Boston-based firm describing themselves as "manufacturers and jobbers of gas, electric, and combination fixtures," issued their Gas Catalogue G. McKenney and Waterbury did not indulge in stylistic nomenclature, although their fixtures freely interpreted past styles, and their boasting was confined to their motto, "We Light the World." The introduction to Gas Catalogue G read in part:

We have compiled in this catalogue a line of new and exclusive designs in the medium grade of fixtures, and will be pleased to furnish additional suggestions for whatever class of work you desire. We will furnish on inquiry photographs of our better goods, covering everything pertaining to gas, electric, or combination fixtures.

Fixtures are furnished in any of the regular finishes, such as Rich Gilt, Old Brass, Flemish Brass, and Polished Brass at list prices. Nickel, Verde Green, or any Copper Finish, 10 percent extra. Ormolu or any Silver Finish, 20 percent extra.

The three-branched chandelier and the bracket shown here on their plate 27 are typical of McKenney and Waterbury's "medium grade of fixtures." The chandelier was available with two lights at $7.50 or the three at $9.50. The bracket cost $2.75. The finish was "Old Brass and Black," and the dimensions were: height, 3 feet; and spread, 26 inches. The bracket projected 11 inches. The hexagonal shapes with beaded edges, and the wreath-and-beribboned-torch pattern of the shades are characteristic early 20th-century motifs. Possibly the chandelier would have been classed as "Colonial." The pattern of the shades was Neo-Empire.

An unidentified catalogue apparently dating from somewhere between 1900 and 1910 offered gas fixtures in the following "styles": Colonial, Empire, Flemish, Gothic, L'Art Nouveau, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Medieval, Mission, Moorish, Renaissance, and Rococo. The finishes available were satin gold, old brass, rich gilt, polished brass, and wrought iron. The firm sold exclusively to the trade and boasted that their stock was composed of "original designs, no copies." Any student of the historical styles would concede their point. Very free adaptation, not copying, was their forte. Even their fixtures in the contemporary Mission style would hardly have received any approbation from Gustav Stickley or Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters. [157]

Courtesy of the Avery Library, Columbia University. (click on image for a PDF version)

The chandelier and bracket on plate 49 of the McKenney and Waterbury catalogue are slightly more elaborate than those on the previous plate of this report. The bracket extended 10 inches and cost $4. The chandelier was 3 feet high and 18 inches wide. The finish was "English Gilt and Matt." With two lights it cost $11; with three it cost $13.50. In addition to the hexagonal shapes and beaded edges so typical of the period, these fixtures have very late neo-classical versions of the palmette motif. Possibly they would have been called "Empire" in their day.

Courtesy of the Avery Library, Columbia University. (click on image for a PDF version)

Gas candles were popular around 1900 and afterwards on both gas chandeliers and combination gas and electric fixtures. They were made in various shapes: round, square, hexagonal or spirally twisted as illustrated here.

McKenney and Waterbury's plate 43 shows another example of their "medium grade" fixtures. This chandelier, with five lights was 42 inches high with a spread of 24 inches, and cost $31. With only four lights the fixture cost $26.50. In either size the finish was "Old Brass and Black."

The design is derived ultimately from 17th-century Flemish chandeliers, but at the time of manufacture, this example may have been referred to as either "Flemish" or "Colonial." The fleur-de-lis is a contrived adornment.

Courtesy of the Avery Library, Columbia University. (click on image for a PDF version)

The quite elaborate five-light chandelier on this McKenney and Waterbury's plate cost $48 and was about at the top of their medium grade line. The finish was "English Gilt and Matt," and the measurements were 42 inches high by 22 inches wide. The gas candles are of the standard plain round type and have plain glass bobeches. The comparatively lavish use of foliate motifs and the C-curves of the gas keys and mantling of the ball at the base of the fixture suggest that the style might have been called either Rococo or Louis XV. The Rococo elements of this design belong to the late Rococo Revival and differ markedly from the Rococo manner popular during the 1840s and 1850s.

There are in all 146 plates in the McKenny and Waterbury catalogue. Among the types of fixtures shown are brackets, pendants and chandeliers, hall pendants, pillars, and lamps, as might be expected. About half of the fixtures had gas candles. Plates 82-96 show chandeliers with art glass domes, then much used for dining rooms. One plate shows mantles, and another shows acetylene burners. Three plates are devoted to shades, and one shows "wire globes" of the type used where breakage or fire were hazards, as in prison corridors or backstage in theaters. Another plate has "torch and key" lighters [158] and tapers as well as burner saws for clogged batswings and fishtails. The lighters sold for $3 per dozen. The last five plates carry pictures of gas cocks in great variety.

When the catalogue was published, McKenny and Waterbury's address was 181 Franklin Street at the corner of Congress Street in Boston. The firm was founded in 1889 by William A. McKenney and Frank S. Waterbury and was still in business as late as 1919. William A. McKenney was in Boston directories prior to 1889 as a clerk with Charles H. Waterbury and Company, who were also listed as manufacturers of lighting fixtures.

Courtesy of the Avery Library, Columbia University. (click on image for a PDF version)

The text of this page from the Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogue for 1908 is most instructive. The remarkably low prices—ranging from 37¢ each for single-swing, gilt brass gas brackets to $6.15 for the chandelier at the lower right when supplied with four lights—may have reflected the competition of electricity as much as any competition within the gas fixture trade. The best of the brackets, a "double swing gilt brass gas bracket with white crystal glass shade and brass shade holder," cost only 78¢, or $4.85 per half dozen. The unshaded pendants below the swing brackets cost 49¢ with one light, or 54¢ with two. They were "suitable for kitchen, cellar, back hall and other places where a fancy gas fixture is not necessary." The "one-light fancy gas pendant polished brass" below those pendants was described as "one of the neatest and most artistic pendants on the market." With a "white crystal shade in very rich looking design," this 36-inch pendant "made of polished brass with fluted cup and fancy carved leaf ornaments and fancy gas stop cock" cost $1.23. The "very neat and effective" hall fixture at the lower left, complete with "ceiling plate, pillar, gas tip, globe, globe holder, and fluted ceiling protector," cost $1.49 with the swirled opalescent shade, or $2.08 with a red glass globe. The more elaborate hall fixture at top center had a lava steatite tip flat flame burner and cost $2.39 with an opalescent shade, or all of $3.18 with a red one.

The gaslamp had a "cap mantle, opaque chimney globe with air holes, green shade (green outside, white inside), fitted with a heavy green bead fringe to match, and six feet of the best quality of mohair tubing fitted with brass gooseneck." Sears and Roebuck claimed that their $3.48 lamp had never before been sold for less than $5 and had more often cost $7.50. The prices of the five chandeliers that are set in eyecatching heavy display type refer to those fixtures with two lights only. With three lights the price was, of course, higher as a second glance reveals. The cheapest, $1.78 with two lights or $2.38 with three, was made of polished brass with a "brass ball ornament in satin finish" and branches of "artistic loop design." The text describing "Our Special Extra Value Leader Chandeliers" reveals what the seller regarded with pride and, presumably, what the buyer prized. In part it reads:

It is made of heavy brass tubing, very highly polished. Part of the tubing is corrugated, giving the fixture a very rich appearance. The fixture has a fluted ceiling plate and is ornamented with a fluted cup in satin finish surmounting a ball with beaded band and large pineapple shaped pendant. This pendant is extra large and elegant, and has attached to it at the bottom a fluted ball in satin finish brass. From this ball five heavy cast brass leaves reach up and are appliqued on the pendant. A ribbed band of satin finish brass surrounds the pendant, from which band project the arms, which have a graceful downward curve and are ornamented with heavy solid cast brass ornaments in dull finish. The keys are fancy openwork in the same finish. The chandelier is fitted complete with fluted brass ceiling plate, pillars, best quality of lava gas tips, brass shade holders, and beautiful new swell shape silver frosted shades, with embossed edges and angel design, having delicate tracery work etched around the figures. Elegant parlor, library or dining room chandelier.

Note that these mail order fixtures were supplied to gas fitters as well as to householders. Note also that tips for burning natural gas were available at 8¢ extra per tip and that acetylene tips cost 25¢ extra per tip.

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

Combination gas and electric fixtures were made from the 1880s until the end of the gas era. This eight-light chandelier in the parlor of a Colonial Revival house near Boston is typical of the combination fixtures made around 1900, when the photograph by C. H. Currier was taken. Curiously, the four gas burners are not all identical. The one in the right foreground has a governor below its flat-flame (probably fishtail) burner, and a single pull chain is visible hanging from the gas burner in the left background. The shade of that burner has been replaced by one that does not match the others, presumably after accidental breakage. Because the four electric lights have no pull chains, there must have been a wall switch, although none shows in the photograph. (The button beside the wide opening into the stairhall rang a call bell to summon a servant). The pierced repousse ornamentation of the stem, or "pillar," and the pendant, as well as the open work keys, scrolled arms with foliate terminations, and fluted canopy, or "ceiling plate," are all characteristics of fixtures dating from around the turn of the century.

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

This charmingly genteel dancing class, now so evocative of nostalgia (although the boys appear to be anything but happy in their pumps and Eton jackets), was photographed at the Staten Island Women's Club by the highly gifted amateur photographer Alice Austen (1866-1952) around 1900. The simple combination fixture at the right has the familiar "T" form so often used where plain, utilitarian lighting was desired. That type of gas and electric fixture was very widely used during the 1890s and early 1900s in schools, hospitals, and the working areas of public buildings, or wherever efficient but unornamented lighting sources were appropriate. The rather small crimped white glass shades of the electric bulbs are typical of such fixtures, as are the plain white gas globes of the kind called "opal." The opal shades diffused the light evenly and softened it agreeably.

Courtesy of the Staten Island Historical Society, Richmondtown, Staten Island, New York. (click on image for a PDF version)

At the other end of the spectrum from the simple combination fixture seen in the previous plate is this very elaborate silver-finished gas and electric chandelier in the dining room of the brewer Christian Heurich's mansion (now the Columbia Historical Society) in Washington, D.C. The Heurich Mansion was built in 1892 and furnished in a lavish, if rather unsophisticated, manner. The chandelier, like the rest of the dining room fittings, was in all probability considered to be "Renaissance" in its day. The pierced filigree work of the base and the small-scaled and delicate but complex ornament of the branches and upper half of this chandelier are typical of the best metal workmanship executed during the 1890s. The six gas candles are interspersed among six upright and six inverted electric lights shaded by delicately etched glass. It is possible that this fixture was a German import. By the turn of the century most, if not all, of the chandeliers of this high quality and elaboration of design were entirely electrified. Gas combination fixtures after 1900 were mostly made in the medium and low-priced range, and after 1910 very few gas or combination gas and electric fixtures were made in any form, cheap or expensive. By 1920, interior gaslighting was, for all practical purposes, a thing of the past. It should be noted, however, that many local ordinances required a few gas burners for emergency lights in places of public assembly until the invention of safe battery-operated lights that could be activated automatically in case of power failures.

From the Library of Congress, Historic American Building Survey. (click on image for a PDF version)