GAS LIGHTING

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Gas in the living room?

My pleasure, Doc.

~Rarely is it still live, usually it has long-since been disconnected.

I was renting a tenement apartment (railroad-style rooms) in a brownstone type building. Went to replace a lamp/bulb in the ceiling fixture. Nearly passed out from the smell of gas. Apparently the plumber's putty, or whatever the pipe-thread sealant is called dries, out after 100 years. Had, to re-seal. Point is the old gas lines were STILL connected and LIVE! They tend to run across the center of the ceilings and had gas chandeliers dropping down.

Soot from gas lighting also explains ornate medallions around the ceiling fixtures in that time period. Thgey were practivcal, nto jsut decorative. You'd paint the medallion only. Ditto mouldings at the 8 foot level when there is a 9 foot ceiling. Ceiling-wall joint/corner was rounded so that it was not a soot trap and easier to paint. You'd pain from the moulding and up as needed. Remeber as stated earlier paint was VERY expensive in those days. Oil based paint gave off NASTY fumes. I'm guessing the fumes were flammable which meant NO LIGHTS for at least a day. I've used oil based paint in rooms with a gas stove that had a live pilot-light. (brilliant, huh? LOL) Don't know what reation takes place but the live flame makes the paint REALLY stink and get you high as a kite. Too much exposure to oil-based paint fumes, especially when a flame is going, makes my whole body get "zingy" sensations. Not good.

Those moldings, BTW, also served to hold pictures and paintings in that when walls were wall-papered you did not wantt to leave hook holes in them. In those days you rearranged your wall decorations frequently. Without automobiles and television the amount of visual stimulation one got was quite limited.

http://www.statue.com/ceiling-medallions.html
 
~Are there any buildings, public or private, that still have gaslights or piping for it in New York. And, if they in fact do have gaslights, can they still use them?

Outdoor gs lights are plentiful, especilly in the browstone areas of Brooklyn, most of which are landmarked areas.

I personally have not seen any indoors in my city. Here electrical and fire codes are quite strict.

-Businesses and public buildings may NOT have a live christmas tree.
- "Romex" plastic- sheathed wiring was only RECENLTY allowed in private (small) buildings in the outer boroughs. Wiring had to be "BX" or metal-sheathed. (Rats will try to eat anything). It still liooks "wrong" to me :-)
-IIRC gas fireplace logs and gas starters are (were?) a no-go in NYC; but city folk travel for an hour (or less) to Long Island and buy them TE HE HE HE.

I have actually seen outdoor gas lights in Florida surrounding a rather snooty condo complex. The buildngs were less than 20 years of age. YAY more heat and more humidity!
 
There are many old homes and flats in San Francisco that still have and use gas lighting. I have a friend who lives in a pre-1906 home and uses the gas lighting, not as an alternative to electric but for atmosphere. Halloween was always fun at his place. I agree that you need to be sure the systems are in good working order before using any gas lighting system. There are probably many homes in SF that still have the piping for gas lighting but have it all capped off since the fixtures were ripped out and replaced by electric many decades ago.
 
Ralph is right

I lived in a flat at 2018 Fell Street in San Francisco in 1970. The living room had a functioning gas light chandelier. We did use it occasionally.

Later I lived at 18 Seymour Street and I believe that place was built in 1868. It too had functioning gas lighting.

Both of these places had the dual fixtures, electric and gas.

Probably they both still have the fixtures.

Martin
 
In many of the fancier suburban neighborhoods around here, gaslights can be found lighting up the outsides or either posts, or mounted on the walls of homes. Most of the ones I have seen have been mantle type, but I have seen a few flame type in the newer neighborhoods that are trying to look fancier and more "upscale"....never figured out why wastefulness is considered upscale, but I guess I don't understand, because I'm not there.

Mantle type gas lights use very little fuel, and produce a good amount of light. I have a portable Coleman backpacker's lantern that will run over 24 hours straight off of a single 16 pound propane cylinder. It is BRIGHT, and gives off about as much light as a 100 watt bulb. Using Thorium or other radioactive materials in mantle wicks nowadays is outlawed, but there has been a host of other interesting technologies that allow less gas to make more light.

Still, despite the fact that flame-type gas lights are wasteful, they do look nice, and I sort of imagine the days when streets were lit using these lanterns versus the ugly sodium-vapour lamps that are commonplace these days. One of my annoyances too is the fact that we over light the outdoors at night anyways. The dimmer street lighting during the gaslight era was probably plenty to get the job done without being overkill, like much of our outdoor lighting is these days. Yes, outdoor lighting deters crime, but you pass a point of diminshing returns.

Sodium vapour electric lamps are primarily used today because of the high light output per watt used, but the light has a terrible color. Even mantel style gas lights would give off a more pleasing color than those ugly things, and they are not that bad. Still too, they wouldn't be subject to the unreliability of electricity which is a common issue around these parts. Those neighborhoods I was mentioning with the exterior gas lights on their homes? Well, they stay nice and lit up when there's an outage. In fact, I cannot ever remember a gas outage in my city the entire time I've been alive, but power outages are very common!
 
Did I get the physics right?

~Still, despite the fact that flame-type gas lights are wasteful, they do look nice.

Why are people so attracted to fire and flames?

My understanding is that electrons, protons and neutrons (or one of the above) can be further broken down into photons. This is just a fancy word for "light" bits. There is still argument as to whether photons are waves or particles in nature. Therefore we are all ultimately made of light; light whose vibration has been slowed down (slown down?) tremendously. Gasses are the fastest, liquids next and solids the slowest in vibration.

So the next time you feel lonely, light a candle. It is percevied as calming, soothing and like having someone in the room with you. Another "soul" if you will. Of course, some of us are just used to flames and big flamers. (ducks and runs)

(Of course THINK before you act. I did an appraisal for a client whose house burned down because his daughter put a candle on a wicker-shelf etagere.)
 
Gas lamps

The street my mom lives on was developed by the gas company, and as such all of the houses had the latest in gas appliances, including a gas light in every front yard. They took the place of street lights.

Over the years they have all been turned off and taken out, except for my mom, who still runs hers, but they have not added any street lights. Since the neighborhood is up in the hills and near a big park, it's pretty isolated. If it weren't for that gas light, it would be downright creepy.
 
Necessity is the mother of invention.

Grandparents' apt had translucent (fuzzy) glass in some of the doors, which would be odd by today's standards.

bedrooms
bathroom
main entry.

Apparently it was desirable to have the natural light from the bedroom illuminate the interior central windowless hallway (that was within the apartment.)

Ditto have natural light get out to the common/public hallway.

Typically, in New York City, there is a large skylight over the top floor staircase in apartment buildngs. These normally have louvers in the sides to allow for air to escape. In this day and age of high fuel costs, it doesn't make a lot of sense. but go back tot he days of gas lighting and realize that there were gas lights burning in central hallways that were constantly consuming oxygen. The vents at the highest level were to exhaust the poisonous fumes and excess heat! EUREKA!

This may also explain the ancient transoms (operable window) over apartment entry doors. I'm guessing it was heat or fumes related. ("cross-ventilation")
 
Toggle, Great thread you have going here. When I was a kid, we lived in a farm house in Illinois that had once been fitted with carbide lights. The tank was in the side yard, and I guess that a powder was put in the tank mixed with water and that is what provided the gas for the house. I live in a victorian built in 1897 and still use the original light fixtres. They are in the bedrooms and upstairs back hall. I rewired them and they are good to go.They are made out of brass tubing with ornamental metal on the end,and still use the original glass shades too. Thanks for the lead to Lehmans. I have a 1920's coal burning cookstove that needs to have the firebox rebuilt. Have fun. Gary
 
When I was a teen we lived in an older three floor flat building on Stanyan Street in SF, just off the Haight Ashbury area. There were traces of old gas lines in the walls, as well as those cool old pushbutton electric light wall switches (with mother of pearl inlays).

Most of the flats we lived in also had old Wedgewood or similar type gas ranges.
 
Thanks interesting

I had No idea, that ceiling medallions caught the soot from gas chandeliers and such, but it does make perfect sense. Will save the links for the weekend. I like these threads that give us a glimpse of the past.
 
Gas lighting and 2-button light switches.

Gaslights inside buildings are old technology that, while frequently intact, can be VERY dangerous if reactivated without proper repairs. Gaslights outside have never entirely disappeared. The moldings used in buildings to seperate the upper portion of the walls and ceiling from the lower parts of the room is the picture rail. A very handy detail that is very functional, and sadly, almost forgotten. My house has tham and I do use them. You can now buy reproduction 2-button light switches and plates. Check out www.rejuvination.com for some great light fixtures.

Keep the lights burning,
Dave
 
Yes, picture rails were a great thing. I recall some flats would have mitered and radiused corners between the walls and ceiling, and where the radius met the wall, there would be a picture rail. In a sense, they were much more needed with old plaster and lathe walls, which don't take kindly to any kind of nailing. Modern sheet rock is easier to sink a nail into, and reacts much better to mistakes.
 
~I cannot ever remember a gas outage in my city..

We had one in NYC, (Around the teens on the east side.) But it was caused by a water-main break eroding the soil and then the gas main sagged, fell and split itself open in a number of locations.

You don't normally see electric cooking in Manhattan of NYC. In that area, you now do. I'm guessing they got tired of waiting for a restoration of service. Food-service businesses suffered a great deal. If they did get some temporary ovens etc, there was not enough electrical service into the building to heat the restaurant. *SIGH*
 

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