ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING IN AMERICA — WATKINS 405 



report there is reference to an almost comic example of the outre: 

 "The Committee were not less pleased with lamps of anthracite coal 

 from the factory of J. W. and F. Kirk . . . The quantity of this 

 article sold by the makers, indicates the public suffrage in its favour, 

 and a confidence in its durability, which we were not prepared to 

 expect" (1883, ser. 2, vol. 13, pp. 92-93). 



In 1844, at the Thirteenth Exhibition, there was an increasing em- 

 phasis on fixtures such as "richly ornamented gas pendants in ormolu" 

 and "silvered chandeliers and candelabra" (1844, ser. 3, vol. 6, p. 402). 

 At about this time mantelpiece girandole candelabra were fashion- 

 able, and Starr & Co. of New York advertised a 3-unit set consisting 

 of cast-brass human figures on marble bases supporting candle hold- 

 ers from which cut crystal drops were suspended. 



The judges at the Thirteenth Exhibition gave due credit, however, 

 to some of the simpler devices: "The humbler solar and lard lamps 

 deserve more than the passing notice which they receive at the hands 

 of the committee, and will, no doubt, serve to gratify the good taste, 

 and aid the vision of a far greater number of our fellow citizens, 

 than will the more showy and expensive chandeliers." 



Like a tidal wave, however, a new discovery in lighting swept 

 aside everything before it, botli in form and function, at the close 

 of the 1830-GO period. The coup de grace had actually fallen 6 

 years earlier, when Abraham Gesner of Williamsburg, N. Y., had 

 patented his "new liquid hydrocarbon, which I denominate 'kero- 

 sene'." The blow was not then immediately felt, for Gesner's "kero- 

 sene" was regarded at first as merely another burning fluid. But 

 the opening up of the Pennsylvania petroleum fields in 1859 marked 

 the turning point by releasing an abundant source of cheap and 

 superior fuel. Special burners were developed, and before a decade 

 had passed the kerosene lamp, in dramatic fashion, had virtually 

 displaced all its predecessors, except those that burned gas. 



With the adoption of kerosene, as well as the increased urban use 

 of gas, industrialism took command in the field of lighting, just as 

 it did in so many phases of human activity. The period of 1830-60 

 had been one of transition between handicraft economy and mass 

 production and distribution. It had been an era when the individual 

 tinkerer applied his talents to inventing tlie mechanisms of a system 

 which was soon to dispense with his services. Viewed from afar it 

 appears today fresh and picturesque, with its tortuously conceived 

 lard lamps being "teased" along in farmhouse kitchens and its naively 

 "elegant" solar lamps symbolizing artistic progress in countless 

 parlors. But it had been in fact an earth-shaking era, for it effected 

 the final transition to a new material environment, not the least part 

 of which was the conquering of darkness. 



