The lighting of streets, while it greatly contributes to ornament
our principal cities, adds considerably also to the convenience and
security of the inhabitants. But of whatever benefit it may be, it
is generally considered as a modern invention. M. St. Evremond says,
“The invention of lighting the streets of Paris during the night, by a
multitude of lamps, deserves that the most distant nations should go
to see what neither the Greeks nor the Romans ever thought of for the
police of their republics.” This opinion appears to be well-founded;
for I have never yet met with any information which proves that the
streets of Rome were lighted. Some passages, indeed, in ancient
authors rather indicate the contrary; and according to my ideas, the
Romans would not have considered the use of flambeaux and lanterns so
necessary on their return from their nocturnal visits, as they seem to
have done, had their streets been lighted; though I will allow that the
public lighting of the streets in our cities does not render links or
lanterns altogether superfluous. Whoever walked the streets of Rome at
night without a lantern, was under the necessity of creeping home in
perfect darkness, and in great danger[432], like Alexis in Athenæus.
Meursius endeavours to make it appear that the streets of Rome were
lighted; and in support of this opinion quotes Ammianus Marcellinus,
and the Life of Julius Cæsar in Suetonius; but his arguments to me are
far from being convincing[433]. That Naples was not lighted, appears
from the return of Gito in the night-time, mentioned by Petronius[434].
Some circumstances however related by ancient authors make it probable
that Antioch, Rome and a few other cities had public lanterns, if not
in all the streets, at least in those which were most frequented.
Libanius, who lived in the beginning of the fourth century, says in his
Panegyric[435], where he praises his native city Antioch, “The light
of the sun is succeeded by other lights, which are far superior to the
lamps lighted by the Egyptians on the festival of Minerva of Sais. The
night with us differs from the day only in the appearance of the light:
with regard to labour and employment everything goes on well. Some
work continually; but others laugh and amuse themselves with singing.”
I cannot allow myself to imagine that the sophist here considers
it as a subject of praise to his native city, that the inhabitants
after sun-set did not sit in darkness, but used lights to work by. It
appears, therefore, that he alludes to the lighting of the streets.
In another passage, in the oration to Ellebichus[436], the same author
tells us, that the ropes from which the lamps that ornamented the
city were suspended, had been cut by some riotous soldiers, not far
from a bath. “Proceeding,” says he, “to a bath not far off, they cut
with their swords the ropes from which were suspended the lamps that
afforded light in the night-time, to show that the ornaments of the
city ought to give way to them.” This quotation indicates, at any rate,
that there were lamps suspended from ropes near the baths and places
of greatest resort. The following passage of Jerome, however, seems
to make it probable, or rather certain, that the streets of Antioch
were lighted. In the altercation between a Luciferan and an Orthodox,
he relates that an adherent of the schismatic Lucifer disputed in the
street with a true believer till the streets were lighted, when the
listening crowd departed; and that they then spat in each other’s face,
and retired.
In the elegant edition of the works of that father, by Dominicus
Vallarsius, we have a short dissertation on the time when this
unmannerly dispute took place; and the editor shows that it happened at
Antioch in the year 378[437].
Basilius the Great, in a letter to Martinianus, giving an account of
the miserable situation of his native city Cæsarea, in Cappadocia,
in the year 371, says they had nights without lights (_noctes non
illustratas_). Most commentators explain this passage as if it meant
that the lamps in the streets had not been lighted[438].
That the streets, not only of Antioch, but also of Edessa, in Syria,
were lighted in the fifth century, seems proved by a passage in the
History of Jesue Stylites. It is there expressly said, that Eulogius,
governor of Edessa, about the year 505, ordered lamps to be kept
burning in the streets during the night; and that he employed for that
purpose a part of the oil which was before given to the churches and
monasteries[439].
With regard to the public lighting of whole cities on festivals,
and particularly on joyful occasions, which we call illuminations,
that practice seems to be of great antiquity. Of this kind was a
particular festival of the Egyptians[440], during which lamps were
placed before all the houses throughout the country, and kept burning
the whole night[441]. During that festival of the Jews, called _festum
encæniorum_, the feast of the Dedication of the Temple, which,
according to common opinion, was celebrated in December, and continued
eight days, a number of lamps were lighted before each of their houses.
A passage in Æschylus shows that such illuminations were used also in
Greece. At Rome, the forum was lighted when games were exhibited in
the night-time; and Caligula, on a like occasion, caused the whole
city to be lighted[442]. As Cicero was returning home late at night,
after Catiline’s conspiracy had been defeated, lamps and torches were
lighted in all the streets in honour of that great orator. The emperor
Constantine caused the whole city of Constantinople to be illuminated
with lamps and wax candles on Easter eve[443]. The fathers of the
first century frequently inveigh against the Christians, because, to
please the heathens, they often illuminated their houses, on idolatrous
festivals, in a more elegant manner than they. This they considered
as a species of idolatry[444]. That the houses of the ancients were
illuminated on birth-days, by suspending lamps from chains, is too well
known to require any proof[445].
Of modern cities, Paris, as far as I have been able to learn, was
the first that followed the example of the ancients by lighting its
streets. As this city, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, was
much infested with street robbers and incendiaries, the inhabitants
were, from time to time, ordered to keep lights burning, after nine in
the evening, before the windows of all the houses which fronted the
street. This order was issued in the year 1524, and renewed in 1526
and 1553[446]; but in the month of October 1558, _falots_ were erected
at the corners of the streets, or, when the street was so long that
it could not be lighted by one, three were erected in three different
parts of it. These lights had, in a certain measure, a resemblance to
those used in some mines; for we are told, in the Grand Vocabulaire
François[447], that _falot_ is a large vase filled with pitch, rosin,
and other combustibles, employed in the king’s palace and houses of
princes to light the courts. At that period there were in Paris 912
streets; so that the number of lights then used must have been less
than 2736.
In the month of November, the same year, these lights were changed for
lanterns of the like kind as those used at present. The lighting of
the streets of Paris continued, however, for a long time to be very
imperfect, till the abbé Laudati, an Italian of the Caraffa family,
conceived the idea of letting out torches and lanterns for hire. In
the month of March 1662, he obtained an exclusive privilege to this
establishment for twenty years; and he undertook to erect, at certain
places, not only in Paris, but also in other cities of the kingdom,
booths or posts where any person might hire a link or lantern, or, on
paying a certain sum, might be attended through the streets by a man
bearing a light. He was authorised to receive from every one who hired
a lantern to a coach, five sous for a quarter of an hour; and from
every foot-passenger, three sous. To prevent all disputes in regard
to time, it was ordered that a regulated hour-glass should be carried
along with each lantern.
In 1667, however, the lighting of the city of Paris was put on that
footing on which it is at present. At the same time the police was
greatly improved, and it afterwards served as a pattern to most of the
other cities in Europe. Affairs of judicature, and those respecting
the public police, instead of being committed, as before, to one
magistrate, called the “Lieutenant civil du prevost de Paris,” were
by a royal edict, of the month of March in the above year, divided
between two persons. One of them, who had the management of judicial
affairs, retained the old title; and the other, who superintended the
police, had that of “Lieutenant du prevost de Paris pour la police,”
or “Lieutenant général de police.” The first lieutenant of police
was Nicholas de Reynie, a man who, according to the praises bestowed
on him by French writers, formed an epoch in the history of modern
police. In the History of Paris, so often already quoted, he is called
an enlightened, upright, and vigilant magistrate, as zealous for the
service of the king as for the good of the public, and who succeeded
so well in this new office, that we may say, adds the author, it is
to him, more than to any other, that we are indebted for the good
order which prevails at present in Paris. The first useful regulation
by which La Reynie rendered a service to the police, was that for
improving the (_guet_) night-watch, and the lighting of the streets.
I can find no complete account of the changes he introduced; but four
years after, that is, on the 23rd of May 1671, an order was made that
the lanterns every year should be lighted from the 20th of October till
the end of March in the year following, and even during moonlight;
because the latter was of little use in bad weather, and even in fine
weather was not sufficient to light some of the most dangerous streets.
Before this period the streets were lighted only during the four
winter months; and on account of the numberless atrocities committed
in the night-time, when there were no lights, the Parisians offered to
contribute as much money as should be sufficient to defray the expense
of keeping the lamps lighted throughout the whole winter. The lamps
employed by La Reynie were, on account of their likeness to a bucket,
called _lanternes à seau_, and succeeded those invented by one Herault,
called _lanternes à cul-de-lampe_.
When De Sartines held the office of lieutenant de police, a premium
was offered to whoever should discover the most advantageous means of
improving the lighting of the streets; and the Academy of Sciences
were to decide on the different plans that might be proposed. In
consequence of this offer, a journeyman glazier, named Goujon, received
a premium of 200 livres, and Messrs. Bailly, Le Roy, and Bourgeois de
Chateaublanc 2000 livres. To the last-mentioned gentleman is ascribed
the invention of the present reverberating lamps, described by La
Vieil, which were introduced in 1766.
In a small work, called an Essay on Lanterns, by a society of literary
men[448], which, though written to ridicule antiquarian researches
and certain persons at Paris, contains some authentic information
respecting the lighting of the streets, we are told that reverberating
lamps were invented by an abbé P., who therefore, says the author
humorously, is the second abbé who can boast of having enlightened
the first city in the world. The superiority of these lamps cannot
be denied; but, besides their expense, they are attended with this
disadvantage when they hang in the middle of the street, that they
throw a shade over it, so that one cannot be known by those who pass.
In cities also, where people walk principally in the middle of the
streets, or where the streets are broad, they are not very convenient,
and they occasion a stoppage when it is necessary to clean them.
In the year 1721, the lamps in Paris are said to have amounted to 5772;
but in the Tableau de Paris, printed in 1760, the number is reckoned to
be only 5694, and in the Curiosités de Paris, 1771, they are stated to
be 6232.
In 1777, the road between Paris and Versailles, which is about nine
miles in length, was lighted at the yearly expense of 15,000 livres by
the same contractors who lighted Paris. The city of Nantes was lighted
the same year; and in 1780 had 500 lamps. Strasburg began to be lighted
in 1779.
If what Maitland says in his history[449] be true, that in the year
1414 an order was issued for hanging out lanterns to light the streets,
and if that regulation was continued after the above period, which I
very much doubt, then must it be allowed that London preceded Paris in
this useful establishment. Maitland refers for his authority to Stow’s
Survey of London; but in the edition of that work published in 1633,
I find only, where a list of the magistrates is given, the following
information:--“1417, Mayor, Sir Henry Barton, skinner. This Henry
Barton ordained lanthorns with lights to bee hanged out on the winter
evenings, betwixt Hallontide and Candlemasse.” Nothing more occurs in
the edition by Strype, published in 1720.
In the year 1668, when several regulations were made for improving
the streets, the Londoners were reminded that they should hang out
lanterns duly at the accustomed time[450]. In the year 1690 this order
was renewed, and every housekeeper was required to hang out a light
or lamp every night as soon as it was dark, between Michaelmas and
Lady-day; and to keep it burning till the hour of twelve at night.
In the year 1716 it was ordained by an act of common council, that
all housekeepers, whose houses fronted any street, lane, or public
passage, should, in every dark night, that is, every night between the
second night after every full moon till the seventh night after every
new moon, set or hang out one or more lights, with sufficient cotton
wicks, that should continue to burn from six o’clock at night till
eleven o’clock of the same night, under the penalty of one shilling.
All these regulations, however, seem to have been ineffectual, owing to
bad management. The city was lighted by contract, and the contractors
for liberty to light it were obliged to pay annually to the city the
sum of six hundred pounds. Besides, the contractors received only six
shillings per annum from every housekeeper whose rent exceeded ten
pounds; and all persons who hung out a lantern and candle before their
houses were exempted from paying towards the public lamps. The streets
were lighted no more than one hundred and seventeen nights; and as this
gave great opportunity to thieves and robbers to commit depredations in
the night-time, the lord mayor and common council judged it proper, in
the year 1736, to apply to parliament for power to enable them to light
the streets of the city in a better manner; and an act was accordingly
passed, by which they were empowered to erect a sufficient number of
such sort of glass lamps as they should judge proper, and to keep them
burning from the setting to the rising of the sun throughout the year.
Instead therefore of a thousand lamps, the number was now increased
to 4679; but as these even were not sufficient, several of the wards
made a considerable augmentation, so that the whole could amount to no
less than 5000. This, however, was not the amount of all the lamps in
London, but of those in what is properly called the city and liberties.
As this division forms only a fifth part of London, Maitland reckons
the whole number of public and private lamps to have been, even at that
period, upwards of 15,000. The time of lighting also, which before had
been only 750 hours annually, was increased to 5000. In our cities of
Lower Saxony, the streets of which are not so dark as those of London,
the lighting continues 1519 hours.
In the year 1744, owing to the great number of robberies committed
in the streets during the night, it was found necessary to apply for
another act of parliament to regulate still farther the lighting of
the city; and at that period this establishment was placed upon that
footing on which it now stands.
The lamps of London, at present (1786), are all of crystal glass; each
is furnished with three wicks; and they are affixed to posts placed at
the distance of a certain number of paces from each other. They are
lighted every day in the year at sunset. Oxford-street alone is said
to contain more lamps than all Paris. The roads, even, seven or eight
miles round London, are lighted by such lamps; and as these roads
from the city to different parts are very numerous, the lamps seen
from a little distance, particularly in the county of Surrey, where a
great many roads cross each other, have a beautiful and noble effect.
Birmingham was lighted, for the first time, in 1733, with 700 lamps.
It appears that the streets of Amsterdam were lighted by lanterns as
early as 1669; for in the month of February that year, the magistrates,
who in 1665 had forbidden the use of torches, issued an order against
destroying the lamp-posts, to which it was customary to fasten horses.
This order, as well as the instructions given to the lamp-lighters
in 1669, may be found in a work called the Privileges of the city
of Amsterdam. The lanterns were not of glass, but of horn; for the
lamp-lighters were ordered, in their instructions, to wipe off every
day the smoke of the train-oil which adhered to the horn of the
lanterns.
At the Hague an order was issued in the month of October 1553, that the
inhabitants should place lights before their doors during dark nights;
and afterwards small stone buildings were erected at the corners of the
principal streets, in which lights were kept burning; but in the year
1678 lamps were fixed up in all the streets.
The streets of Copenhagen were first lighted by lamps in 1681; and on
the 16th of July 1683 new regulations were made, by which the plan was
much improved, as well as that of the night-watch.
The streets of Rome are not yet lighted. Sixtus V. was desirous
to introduce this improvement in the police, but he met with
insurmountable obstacles. That the benefit of lighting might be enjoyed
in some measure, he ordered the number of the lights placed before the
images of saints to be augmented. De la Lande says, in his Travels,
that Venice had been lighted for some years before the period when he
wrote, by 3000 lamps. Messina and Palermo, in Sicily, are both lighted.
Madrid, which till lately was the dirtiest of all the capital cities of
Europe, is at present as well lighted as London[451]. Valencia in Spain
was some years ago indebted for this improvement to Joachim Manuel Fos,
then inspector of the manufactories. Barcelona is lighted also[452].
Lisbon however has no lights.
The streets of Philadelphia are lighted, and on each side there is a
foot-pavement.
In the year 1672 the council of Hamburg made a proposal to the citizens
for lighting the streets. The year following this proposal was
accepted, but the lamps were not fixed up till two years after, that is
to say in 1675.
In the year 1679, Berlin had advanced so far towards this improvement,
that the inhabitants were obliged in turns to hang out a lantern with
a light at every third house. In 1682, the Elector Frederick William
caused lamp-posts with lamps to be erected, notwithstanding the
opposition made by the inhabitants on account of the expense. In a
petition which they presented in 1680, they stated that the lamps cost
5000 dollars, and that 3000 were required yearly to keep them lighted.
At present Berlin has 2354 lamps, which are kept lighted from September
till May, and at the king’s expense. Potsdam has 590[453].
Vienna began to be lighted in the year 1687. The lights were hung
out in the evening on a signal given by the fire-bell. In 1704 lamps
were introduced; but at first the light which they afforded was very
imperfect, as the lamps burned badly, and because, to save the expense
of lamp-lighters, every housekeeper was obliged daily to remove the
empty lamps, to carry them to the lamp-office to be filled, and to
light them again on a signal given with a bell. In 1776, the lamps,
which before amounted to 2000, were increased to 3000, and a contract
was entered into for lighting them at the rate of 30,000 florins.
These lamps were invented by counsellor Sonnenfels, and amounted in
1779 to 3445. They are made of white glass, in a globular form, and
have a covering of tin-plate, painted red on the outside and polished
within. They are supported by lamp-irons, fixed in the houses at the
height of fifteen feet from the earth. Each lantern is only sixteen
paces distant from the other, so that the streets are completely
illuminated. They are kept lighted both summer and winter, whether the
moon shines or not; and this is more necessary at Vienna than anywhere
else, on account of the height of the houses and the narrowness and
crookedness of the streets. The lamp-lighters wear an uniform, and are
under military discipline. In 1783 the yearly expense of the lamps was
estimated at only 17,000 florins[454].
Leipzig was lighted in 1702, and Dresden in 1705. In 1766, the number
of lamps at the latter amounted only to 728, for the lighting of which
oil of rape-seed was employed.
In Cassel the streets began to be lighted under the Landgrave Charles,
in 1721; but as regulations were not made sufficient to support this
improvement, it was at length dropped. It was however revived in 1748,
and in 1778 the number of the lamps was increased to 1013, besides
those at the landgrave’s palace.
Hanover was lighted in 1696, Halle in 1728, and Göttingen in 1735.
Brunswick since 1765 has had 1565 lamps. Zurich has been lighted since
1778, but the lamps are very few in number.
[Such was the state of street-lighting towards the end of the last
century, and many of the readers of this work will remember the round
glass lamps and their dismal oil-light, which long after the streets of
London were illuminated with gas, still continued to be employed in the
outskirts of this immense metropolis. How changed is all this now, and
how surprising must it appear, that a thing so simple as the employment
of the combustible gases produced in the distillation of coal and other
bodies of organic origin should date from so recent a period! But such
is the case with most of the improvements which tend to the comfort and
happiness of the human race; slow and by degrees they progress towards
perfection,--a fact most admirably illustrated by numerous articles
contained in these volumes.
The first idea of applying coal-gas to œconomical purposes is generally
attributed to Mr. William Murdoch, who in 1792 employed coal-gas for
lighting his house and offices at Redruth in Cornwall, and in 1798
constructed the apparatus for the purpose of lighting Boulton and
Watt’s celebrated manufactory at Soho, near Birmingham, which on the
occasion of the peace in 1802 was publicly illuminated by the same
means. This display vastly attracted public attention to the subject,
and soon after several manufacturers whose works required light and
heat adopted the use of gas; a button manufactory at Birmingham used
it largely for soldering; Halifax, Manchester and other towns soon
followed. A single cotton-mill in Manchester used above 900 burners,
and had several miles of pipe laid down to supply them. Mr. Murdoch,
who erected the apparatus used in this mill, sent a detailed account
of his operations to the Royal Society in 1808, and received the gold
medal of that body. It appears, however, from an interesting paper by
R. C. Taylor on the coal-fields of China[455], that the Chinese, if
not manufacturers, are nevertheless gas consumers and employers on a
grand scale, and have evidently been so ages before the knowledge of
its application was acquired by Europeans. Beds of coal are frequently
pierced by the borers for salt water; and the inflammable gas is forced
up in jets twenty or thirty feet in height. From these fountains the
vapour has been conveyed to the salt-works in pipes, and there used
for the boiling and evaporation of the salt; other tubes convey the
gas intended for lighting the streets and the larger apartments and
kitchens. As there is still more gas than required, the excess is
conducted beyond the limits of the salt-works, and there forms separate
chimneys or columns of flame. But this, like many other discoveries
of the Chinese, remained, owing to their exclusive habits, unknown
to us till within a recent period, and the world may fairly be said
to be indebted to Mr. Winsor, for the vast benefit conferred upon it
by gas-illumination. After several experiments, this gentleman in
1803-1804 lighted the Lyceum theatre, and shortly afterwards, in 1807,
one side of Pall-Mall with gas distilled from coal. Soon after that
period companies were formed for carrying on the manufacture of gas
upon an extensive scale, oil-lamps were banished from all the great
thoroughfares of the metropolis, and in the course of fifteen years not
only was every street and alley illuminated from the same source, but
it was generally introduced into shops and houses, was carried into
the suburbs, and has now become general in every town and city of the
empire.
It would lead us too far to enter into minute details concerning the
structure, uses and arrangement of the various apparatus employed in
the production of gas; it will suffice to observe that when coal is
heated to redness in a close vessel, it yields a variety of products
which may be classed under three heads, as,--1st, permanent gases;
2ndly, vapours condensable into the liquid or solid state by cooling;
and 3rdly, the residuary matter, coke, which remains in the retort. The
object of gas manufacture is to separate these from each other, and to
purify the gaseous products by washing and other means, so as to render
them fit for combustion.
The following particulars, taken from Brande’s Dictionary of Science,
may serve to give an idea of the quantity of gas annually consumed
in London. The oldest of the London gas-works is the establishment
belonging to the original chartered company. They have three stations;
the largest situated in Peter-street, Westminster; the second in
Brick-lane, St. Luke’s, and the third in the Curtain-road, Shoreditch.
This company consumes 50,000 chaldrons of coals annually, the produce
of which in gas may be estimated at about six hundred million cubic
feet, or about eighteen million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds
_weight_ of gas. It may be assumed that each chaldron of coals weighs
2880 lbs., and yields an average produce of 12,000 cubic feet of
purified gas. The prime cost of gas is about four or five shillings per
1000 cubic feet; the usual retail price is from seven to ten shillings
per 1000 cubic feet.
The chartered company probably supplies about a fifth part of the
whole of the gas consumed in London and the suburbs; so that the total
annual consumption of coal employed for this important manufacture
in the London district only, probably exceeds two hundred and fifty
thousand chaldrons, and the quantity of gas produced for the supply of
this district amounts annually to three thousand million cubic feet.
The _weight_ of this quantity of gas exceeds seventy-five millions of
pounds; and the _light_ produced by its combustion may be considered
as equivalent to that which would be obtained by the combustion of one
hundred and sixty millions of pounds of mould-candles of six to the
pound.
The operations of the London Gas-light Company, which was established
in the year 1833, are also on a scale of great magnitude. Their works,
situated at Vauxhall, are not only the most powerful, but the most
complete in arrangement of any in the world. From this point their
mains ramify to a prodigious extent in Middlesex as well as Surrey,
and by the admirable mode in which they are laid, aided by the power
of their works, they are enabled to supply gas at Highgate Hill (seven
miles distance) with the same precision and in the same abundance as at
Vauxhall. The extent of their pipes exceeds one hundred and fifty miles.
The cost of light equivalent to that of seven mould candles (six to the
pound) is in coal-gas three farthings per hour, in an Argand oil-lamp
3_d._ per hour, in mould candles 3½_d._ per hour, and in wax candles
1_s._ 2_d._ per hour.
Gas has also been manufactured from oil, rosin and other substances.
Oil-gas is procured abundantly by the decomposition of oil, trickled
into a red-hot retort, half-filled with coke or brick. It contains no
sulphuretted hydrogen, requires no purification, and is much richer in
carburetted hydrogen than coal-gas. Its expense has however led nearly
to the entire disuse of this kind of gas.
In London there are eighteen public gas establishments and twelve
companies; the capital invested in works and apparatus is estimated at
3,000,000_l._]