Even today one can find Victorian style gas lamp shades in people’s homes, or in lobbies of fancy hotels. The reason for their endurance even some hundred years after their formal replacement by electrical lighting is due to two factors. One, they still hold appeal as part of the trend of returning to Victorian era style. Two, they are just as functional for electrical bulbs as they were for gas flames.
Although Victorian style glass shades started to gather popularity in the time of Victoria, the queen of England of the 1800s, their beginnings stretch a hundred years before. The first experiments in trapping gas, and controlling its flow into a lamp device had just begun. A man named William Murdoch of England was one of the first to do so.
Murdoch was in the employment of a steam engine and coal mining company. During his spare time in the company, he would try to find uses for coal gas. The fruits of these efforts resulted in new inventions.
In the beginning he put gas lamps in his own home. Later he moved them outside to dazzle the crowd. Finally he started putting them into company grounds where his colleagues could digest the implications of his invention. It so struck one Samuel Clegg that he left the steam engine firm to start a business in glass lamp shades.
Murdoch’s ventures were not the only ones. For example, the German Friedrich Winzer applied for exclusive patent protection on coal gas-fueled lamps in the early 1800s. Another man, Phillipe Lebon of France, set up gas powered lamps for light his home and home exterior. Soon after his experiments, the city of Paris took it upon itself to light the streets with gas power.
The introduction of gas lamp shades to city streets had a tremendous economic and social impact. Now businesses could stay later as their clients were able to safely use streets even in the late hours. Safety also meant that social activities between households and other parties could extend into the night.
The benefits of gas lighting were not limited to the streets. When installed indoors, factories found that they could extend the hours of their workers. Moreover, the decorating of homes with novel glass lamp shades meant the development of a new industry aimed at artistic and interior design.
The result was the rich period of Victorian glass lamp shades, defined by globular shapes with ornate designs on acid etched glass. The Victorian style is not the only one, for other styles such as TIffany, student, school house and hurricane shades proliferated as light glasswork became more common.
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