Newel Post Gas Lighting Fixture

BC in Carpinteria has an ornate lamp, and it was, in the late 19^th century, considered an exquisite newel post gas lighting fixture. In its day (1860-1880) it was as beautiful as it is deadly. 

Firstly, let us talk about the symbolism of the design. Lighting in the late 19^th century was novel and figural. A lamp was meant to evoke a classical, artistic feeling – the owner of this lamp wanted to impress, because to install the gas lines needed to produce light through this kind of lamp was expensive. Owners wanted to show off, especially if a lamp had a place of honor, as did this newel post lamp – rising magnificently from a stairway’s central post. This striking lamp would be seen directly upon entering a grand house, as (typically) stairs were placed opposite a front entryway. 

BC’s lamp has iconography in the design. The central figure is a Classical Greek-style maiden who holds a handled urn from which sprouts a bouquet of lilies. The maiden is the ‘classy’ element, as she references high taste in Classical (Greek or Roman) art, which was just then being excitedly taken up and discussed in what would later be called the 19^th century’s Neoclassical period. The lilies represent sleep and death; think of darkness, and how a lamp overcomes darkness. On the base of the lamp, in relief in the metal (which is called Spelter metal), is a motif of a vine of ivy. This symbolizes tenacious love (ivy clings!) and strong family relationships. All these elements “speak” within the symbol of an object that creates light. 

We have considered beauty. Now let us consider the deadly nature of the gas lamp of the mid to late 19^th century. Edison’s bulb was invented in 1879 and slowly put gas lighting out of business, but not before gas lighting became a universal light source. BC’s lamp once had levers that were formed in the shape of a flower stem that could be turned on and off; these are the manual handles for the gas, which must be hand ignited and then (hopefully upon bedtime) quelled. The technical term for these levers is stopcocks. When someone “electrified” BC’s lamp, they wired the lamp so that a light bulb would be inserted in the uplifted lilies. Before that modernizing upgrade, the lamp had an original “mantle” where the bulb is now: the fuel (such as propane, white gas, coal gas, wood gas, natural gas) would have produced heat, and the mantel, ceramic mesh, encased the flame. 

Now here’s how this lamp could kill. When lit in a poorly ventilated room, this lamp, which likely was fueled by natural gas, created carbon monoxide, serious heat, and soot – never mind the audibly nasty hiss of the gas. Carbon monoxide was responsible for deaths in the worst cases, but also caused hallucinations!

Lighting by means of gas was discovered when miners deep in the earth came across pockets of coal gas, and stored this in bladders. Inventors in the late 18^th century experimented with this oddity in England. Gas produced by “gasification” of coal was the gas of choice for Great Britain in the 19^th century; in the U.S. the choice was natural gas.

One of the famous arenas for gas light was the late 19^th century theater, from which we get our terms, “The Great White Way,” “In the Limelight,” and by the “Footlights.” The most famous theater to be gas lit was the Paris Opera House, completed in 1875, requiring 28 miles of gas piping, and changing the experience of both actor and spectator – not least due to the flammability of the costumes when exposed to the footlights!

Hundreds of theaters burnt down until footlights were meshed over, and so-named Gas Boys ran back and forth to adjust them for safety’s sake. By the late 19^th century, the Savoy Theatre in London had had enough of actors on fire, and installed, as a first, incandescent lighting. 

Other famous firsts for gas light in a city included New Orleans’ French Quarter, and in fact many cities became famous for their gas lit streets. Chapel Street in Lancaster became the first street (1806) to be gas lit, followed by Baltimore’s streets in the U.S., as well as a famous artist’s museum in that city – the Rembrandt Peale Museum. Imagine seeing art LIT for the first time (1816). 

BC’s old – and now electrified – newel post lamp is not in the current taste and is worth $400; and should be sold to someone in the South restoring a vintage estate.