Gas lamps

[askolover]

Do any of you have outdoor gas lamps like the ones found in New Orleans or Savannah or Charleston (and many others)?  If so, do you like it and how much gas does it burn each month?  We have a portable one out by our deck but have been thinking of installing one by the front door and possibly the side door too.  They look so nice and add ambience to any exterior.  I prefer the ones with the upright flame over the inverted mantle ones although the latter probably emits more light.

Bevolo | Copper Gas Lamps & Electric Lights

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[appnut]

The subdivision I grew up in, every house had a pole-mounted gas light next to the sidewalk and the walkway that led up to the front door.  It's the only street lighting.  It's still required to this day and the subdivision has continued to be a premium, desired location.  I think it's far better security than city-provided street lights that are about every 5 or 6 houses.  As a side-note, there was a lady my dad worked with and my parents and her and her husband were good friends.  The first time they visited after we'd moved in, she asked for directions to the house.  He said our house was the one on our block with the gas light in front.  She about killed him so to speak.

 

[polkanut]

Check out Whirlcool's posting from 3/28/14.

Glass Cleaning Tip - Gas Lanterns

Today I had to do a bi monthly chore we do here at the house. Cleaning the panes of glass on our outside gas powered lantern. Usually it gets calcium spots on it from the rain that hits it and also dust and grit from the air. There are four glass panels that seem quite fragile to clean...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[tomturbomatic]

They became hideously expensive to operate which led to a lot of them being turned off and/or converted to an electric lamp system that looked like the glowing mantles.

Atlanta Gas Light Co. tapped into the gas line ahead of the meter and there was a flat monthly charge for the post lantern. Check how your gas company bills for these.

 

[launderess]

Some apartment buildings here in Manhattan have

Or private town houses/brownstones have gas lights, usually on each side of front door or stand alone lamp posts in front yard. Don't see the point really as they give off very little light. Yes, the effect is wonderful in a old world sort of way, but shouldn't want to go back to days when entire streets were lit that way.

Years ago worked with someone who lived in a pre-war (WWI) apartment building. Gas bills were very high for all the tenants and since they only had that fuel for cooking no one could figure out why. This co-worker wasn't having any of it and called in the local gas company demanding things be sorted. Turns out the old lines that once supplied gas for lighting had not all been properly capped/disconnected.

This is not as far fetched as some may think. Those familiar with the British television reality series "1900 House" will recall when the chosen Victorian home was gutted of mod cons and restored to its original condition gas lights were part of the deal. Soon as workmen uncapped the lines leading to fixtures, out came gas. Though one assumes by then it was natural rather than the old coal gas.

 

[gusherb]

Gas lights were common in my area on 50s homes. My grandmothers house had/has one. the utility company disconnected it many years ago because they didn't like the line to it (copper I think). There are a couple 50s houses close to mine with gas lamps still operating. I think they're cool, especially the kind you see in New Orleans.

My dads apartment building had dual lighting, gas and electric lights when it was built. When he first bought it there was a leak in the third floor bathroom that nobody could figure out. Well, turned out it was coming from a line tied to the second floors meter. Later as we figured out, all the gas lighting lines were still live. Some of it still is today.

 

[mieleforever]

I may be branded as extremely stupid, but if the streetlights were all fueled by gas did it have these piezo ignitors or did you have to light them yourselve?

Did they come on at a set time in the evening?

I am just interested as we don't have any gas lines in SOuth Africa, except a very small and old part of Johannesburg the rest of us use propane bottles.

If anybody can enlighten me I would be gratefull.

Regards,

 

[launderess]

Lamplighters

Same guys who went around lighting, putting out and responsible for maintaining street lamps when they were lit by candles, whale oil, kerosene or whatever did so for early gas lights. Eventually automatic systems came along and that was that.

http://https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamplighter

 

[tomturbomatic]

There is a song with the title "The Old Lamp Lighter" and Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a poem about the lamp lighter coming around.

Lyrics of the song:

He made the night a little brighter
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago
His snowy hair was so much whiter
Beneath the candle glow
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago

You'd hear the patter of his feet
As he came toddling down the street
His smile would cheer a lonely heart you see
If there were sweethearts in the park
He'd pass a lamp and leave it dark
Remembering the days that used to be
For he recalled when things were new
He loved someone who loved him too
Who walks with him alone in memories

He made the night a little brighter
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago
His snowy hair was so much whiter
Beneath the candle glow
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago

Now if you look up in the sky
You'll understand the reason why
The little stars at night are all aglow
He turns them on when night is near
He turns them off when dawn is here
The little man we left so long ago
He made the night a little brighter
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter of long, long ago
Play "The Old Lampli…"
Town & Country 1960

My Adobe Hacienda
Red Sails In The Sunset
Streamlined Cannonball
Cool Water
The Enchanted Sea
Billy McCoy
The Old Lamplighter
Am I That Easy To Forget
That Little Boy Of Mine
Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)
Halfway To Heaven
True Love
Oh! My Pa-Pa (O Mein Papa)
The Three Bells
Unchained Melody
Love Me Tender

THE BROWNS videos - The Old Lamplighter

The Poem From A Child's Garden of Verses:

The Lamplighter

MY tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
It’s time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea, 5
And my papa’s a banker and as rich as he can be;
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I’m to do,
O Leerie, I’ll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more; 10
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I used to want to be a Lamp Lighter!  That would be a great job for me to have today...

 

I've seen and heard everything about gas lamps, such as magazine ads to have them installed on your property--photo-sensors to have them go on at night, automatically--, to more magazine ads urging people to "stop paying your gas company hundreds of dollars a year for a lamp that can barely provide any security lighting & convert those to electric lighting--also with dusk-to-dawn automatic operation...

 

There was one I've seen in my lifetime, going from a faint-yellow glow, to the thing suddenly disabled with all its glass panels taken out--as if "playing ball" had been too close to that fixture,--to it being removed...  (And for those lights to have been notoriously not connected to any gas meter... Hence quite a wide-spread campaign to start tearing them down, or at least them becoming electric...)

 

And a children's book on lights showing a huge lantern with a bonfire-sized flame lighting up a down-town street, depicted in the Early-American Colonial Days...

 

 

-- Dave

[this post was last edited: 5/31/2016-12:16]

 

[iheartmaytag]

RE: lighting

Back in the 70s when the Arkla (Charmglow) gas yard lamps were popular in our neighborhood; the light burned continuously.  Every few months they would have to change the mantel, otherwise it was never shut off.  Maybe this is why they were so inefficient, and began being phased out after the "Energy Crisis".

 

The one we had was converted to an electric with a photo cell that turned it on at dusk, and off at dawn.  Just didn't have the charm as the glowing yard light.  

 

[circlew]

I have the book "A Child's Garden of Verses" that Tomturbomatic mentions, and always liked that story.

I also have a CD with the song "The Old Lamplighter" by Kay Kyser.

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqOa31Lnx6Q

 

[wayupnorth]

Two REAL old houses I owned still had the original gas pipes in the wall and a couple of wall lights still there, long since disconnected and long before electricity was available there. There was a somewhat plastered over place in the old front siding, so maybe there was a gas light there but I am sure they had to be lit manually.

 

[tomturbomatic]

In the 1960s, I think, there was an article in the Sunday magazine of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution about people who lived in old houses and still used some of their gas lights. It introduced me to the term gasolier for a gas chandelier. One family had their gasolier burning constantly in the entry hall.

 

[helicaldrive]

Gas light cost

Ask your gas company. My experience has been that it costs $10 to $20 per month to operate a gas light, depending upon how high you turn it up. At maximum gas flow it could cost $20. BUT the trick is this: there is a range you can turn it down without losing hardly any brightness at all, and that'll reduce the operation cost substantially. Every time I had one installed in a house, it seemed the gas bill went up about $10 to $15 a month but after a few months I didn't notice it anymore. My gas bill is never significantly different from my neighbors'.

A home is not a home without a gas light. At my previous house I put in two! They add so much charm. The quality of light they emit is so unique. They're not the same after conversion to electric.

Gas is superior for three reasons. 1) the wavelength of gas light does not attract insects, so you can light the path for your guests without their being swarmed by insects, and without running the risk of moths coming in your door, 2) it still operates and provides security in a power outage and 3) you don't have to worry about the bulb burning out when you're out of town.

I feel absolutely no guilt about having a gaslight. I've always driven a fuel efficient car, I've never had a McMansion, I set my furnace thermostat at 69, I never leave the water running when I'm washing myself in the shower, and I line dry my clothes. So eff it! I love a gaslight and I will always have one, and nobody need bother trying to make me feel guilty. And I think the cost is worth it. To each his own. Whatever floats your boat. Other people wouldn't be without their cable TV that they spend $85 a month for. I personally don't have cable and wouldn't dream of spending that when I can get more TV than I'd ever watch for free with a simple antenna. Compared to $85 a month, what's $10 or $20 bucks for 100% dependable security lighting plus other benefits?

If you want one, get it! That's my advice.

 

[helicaldrive]

Forgot to say - a cost-reducing option

In the prior post I was talking about an outdoor gas light on a post with inverted mantles. They actually put out quite a bit of light. The lights with open flames and no mantles do not emit much light at all and are basically just decorative. Not my cup of tea.

One last thing. If you like the charming look of a gas light with two inverted mantles glowing all the time but don't want the cost of operation, there is another option. You can get your post with a smaller size gas orifice. The smaller orifice will light less but cost significantly less to operate, like $5 per month at most.

 

[askolover]

I'm a fire bug anyway and love to stare at a flame.  We go to NOLA usually at least once a year.  Sometimes we walk through the Quarter on the far end of Rue Bourbon where it's a little darker and can see all the gas lamps flickering around us.  I like the ones with mantles too but the flickering flame is my favorite.

 

[dermacie]

Mine outlasted the energy crisis

My 1960s bi-level home still has its original gas lamp made by charmglow. It is on its second post, gas line, and has all new parts inside. The gas company told me to get rid of it, I rebuilt it instead. Cheaper than hiring an electrician and my gas bill is not high.

I have the original Charmglow Chefs Choice cc1 barbecue in the back yard too.

 

[jamiel]

I remember the Laclede Gas Company selling gas lights and gas grills (by Charmglow) for a small addition to your monthly bill. Had a house in Atlanta with both in the back yard...AGL must have done the same thing.