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Flickering Lamps - from Beeswax to Gas the Need for Improved Lighting Led to Many Interesting Inventions, from Safety Matches to Chandeliers

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Flickering Lamps - from Beeswax to Gas the Need for Improved Lighting Led to Many Interesting Inventions, from Safety Matches to Chandeliers BUILDING HISTORY Flickering lamps - from beeswax to gas The need for improved lighting led to many interesting inventions, from safety matches to chandeliers. Fortunately we no longer have to kill a muttonbird or a whale to have oil for our lamps! By Nigel Isaacs, BRANZ Principal Scientist he light from wood fires probably Sperm whale made finest candles offered the first artificial illumination, Until 1783, oil lamps gave a weak, flickering with sticks of a suitably resinous wood light. Swiss inventor, Genevois Aimé Argand, being used as portable torches. Even found that surrounding the wick by a glass Tso, animal or vegetable oils or fats offered a chimney steadied the flame and provided a more controllable source of fuel. good air supply. The wick was fed from a Liquid vegetable or animal oils could be reservoir below. His design was also later held in a regularly replenished plant or clay used with gas. container, feeding the wick which required The need for improved lighting led to many regular removal of the ‘snuff’ (or trimming) as other inventions – the safety match, plaited it turned to carbon. Maritime people in many and borax impregnated wicks, the chandelier parts of the world developed a lamp made (from chandelles, the French for tallow from a seashell containing fish oil. Maori candles) and chambersticks. used fish (shark or whale) or muttonbird oil But the search was also on for improved in a lamp, based on a shell or hollowed stone fuel – and it was found in the sea. The finest with a flax wick. candles were made from the spermaceti Homemade lamps and candles found in the sperm whale. Spermaceti candles lasted longer and burnt more clearly, Animal fats (notably tallow) were commonly brightly and with less odour than the same used by early European settlers to make soap, sized tallow candle. This led to their selection but they could also be used for candles. as the basis for standardisation of light levels. Wicks – whether from local reeds, or store- In the English-speaking world, the candle- brought cotton or linen thread – were mounted Figure 1: Advertisement for Welsbach light. (Source: power (c.p.) was defined by the London on a frame, and repeatedly dipped in the The distribution of gas by Walter Hole, 1912.) Metropolis Gas Act of 1860 as the light given melted tallow until they were of the required by a sperm candle, of which six weighed thickness. The 1883 Brett’s Colonists’ Guide determine the income standing of people 1 lb and each burned 120 grains an hour suggested keeping tallow candles through by the candles they used. Poorer folks used – equivalent to the candle lasting 9.75 hours. the winter to improve their condition. tallow candles, the better-off could afford The source of light was replaced in 1909 by Homemade candles were cheaper and wax’. an electric lamp, and ultimately the SI unit also avoided the government taxes that Accidents with a portable light, whether became the candela (equal to 1.019 c.p.). applied in the UK. Tallow and vegetable using liquid or solid fuel, could have fat candles could even be eaten in times of severe hardship – Captain Scott took disastrous consequences. A major fire in Crude oil gives other options 2,300 lb (1,043 kg) of ‘Price’s Belmont Wellington in November 1842 caused much The discovery of oil in Pennsylvania, USA, stearine candles’ on his ill-fated Antarctic loss of property. Consequently, a resolution in 1859 resulted in the ready availability of expedition of 1910–11. ‘That fires, candles and all lights should be paraffin wax. Extracted from crude oil after Other fats – notably beeswax – gave better extinguished in raupo houses immediately refining, it could be moulded into candles of quantity and quality of light but at a greater after sunset on the pain of a heavy fine higher quality and lower cost. cost than tallow. John A. Lee (born in 1891) for neglecting to do so’ was considered by Kerosene (called ‘paraffin oil’ in the UK) reflected that in his youth you ‘could nearly Council, but never passed. was also extracted from crude oil. It was 94 BUILD December 2007/January 2008 Ratio to 2007 Natural Gas cost Coal gas (1,000 cu. ft) 1.4 Kerosene (3 7/8 gallon) 1.8 Tallow candles Coal gas (1,000 cu. ft) 1.4 Kerosene (3 7/8 gallon) 1.8 (60 1/3 lb) 4.1 Tallow candles (60 1/3 lb) 4.1 Stearine candles Stearine candles (78 lb) 10.6 (78 lb) 10.6 Sperm or wax candles (61 1/4 lb) 24.8 Sperm or wax candles (61 1/4 lb) 24.8 Ratio to 2007 Natural Gas cost Ratio 2007 Natural to stable, produced a good flame and had little 30 smoke or smell. 24.8 Kerosene lamps provided better light than Coal gas (1,000 cu. ft) 25 candles but were expensive. They replaced 7 Kerosene (3 ⁄8 gallon) candles in wealthier houses, particularly in 1 Tallow candles (60 ⁄3 lb) remote areas. 20 Kerosene lamps were used in cities for Stearine candles (78 lb) street lighting. In 1863 Christchurch boasted 15 Sperm whale or wax 1 three kerosene lamps. The lamplighter was 10.6 candles (61 ⁄4 lb) paid 7 shillings a week for each lamp and to 10 supply chimneys, wick and kerosene (£18 4s 4.1 Ratio to 2007 natural gas cost natural to 2007 Ratio per year). In 1864 the Council let a contract 5 1.4 1.8 for a further 17 kerosene lamps, but the next generation of lighting was already on the way. 0 Town gas from the 1860s Figure 2: 1888 Auckland Gas Company lighting fuel cost compared to 2007 cost of residential natural gas. Town gas was first provided commercially said that each £100 of a family’s income was of greenish tinted light. In 1890, Welsbach from the heating of coal in London in 1812. proven by a leaf on the parlour aspidistra – a produced a mantle with the more thermally- In New Zealand, street lighting was the first plant with little to recommend it beyond its stable thorium oxide (99%) combined with initiative for gas companies. By Christmas ability to survive the town gas fumes. cerium oxide (1%), which was more robust 1864 the Christchurch Gas, Coal and Coke The flickering gas flame continued the and produced a whiter light (see Figure 1). Company replaced the kerosene lamps with problems of candles and kerosene. Many In 1888, the Auckland Gas Company gas – costing £20 per year. Auckland’s gas different burners were invented, such as company supplied 43 street lights and most showed that town gas was the most economic the cockspur, fishtail and batwing – largely leading stores in April 1865. The Wellington option. Interestingly, after allowance for Gas Company was supplying 24 gas street named after the appearance of the flame. It inflation and the higher energy in today’s lamps in 1871. was found that playing a flame on a piece natural gas, but not for the environmental Once the piping was in the street for of limestone (calcium oxide) created an impacts, town gas would be still a cheaper gas lighting, domestic use quickly followed intense, stable light – leading to its use in option in 2007 (see Figure 2). – including lighting, cookers, water heating theatres for spotlights (and hence being ‘in But by the late 1890s the competition with and space heating. the limelight’). electricity was becoming fierce. Gas suppliers Coal gas was noxious and smelly, even Ultimately it was the 1885 patent of and equipment manufacturers fought back, before combustion. A good level of background the incandescent mantle for gas lamps, by developing gas lighting systems that could be ventilation was essential (perhaps life saving) Viennese Dr. Auer von Welsbach, that solved controlled from a wall-mounted switch, but it – the ornate ceiling rose often being used to the problem. A mixture of rare earths was put was not enough. The invention of the electric provide both ventilation and removal of burnt on a cotton mantle that burnt away with the incandescent lamp proved to be the death gas. Among the English middle class it was first flame, leaving a shell to give a steady glow knell for gas lighting. BUILD December 2007/January 2008 95.
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