Old gas lamp?

[Steve]

I am posting this here as I assume this is some kind of gas fitting. It is fitted at about 6ft 6in above the floor. I reckon it was some kind of gas lamp.

Untitled

• Steve
• 1 Oct 2013
• 2

Any ideas? And any ideas of age? And what it would have looked like in operation?

Out of interest in this warehouse there are remnants of 4 generations of lighting - this gas lamp (if thats what it is), 4 wooden blocks on the ceiling with lead cable coming from them, old metal conduits with open boxes which used to feed lights, and the current fluorescent lighting supplied by t&e.

Below this fitting is a length of lead pipe along the wall which still feeds a water heater and tap.

 

[OwainDIYer]

It's a gas bracket and be aware the gas pipe might still be live!

Mechanics of the Household

Suggs still make gas lights and their webpage shows some in use.

Suggs History

 

[Steve]

Suggs still make gas lights and their webpage shows some in use.

Suggs History

Ruddy hell! Brilliant stuff there. One thing that I'm curious about though is what modern-equivalent wattage the flames on those lamps is.

And would homes lit by gas smell of burnt gas? (Thinking the smell of a boiler flue) Did people used to get CO poisoning more often in the past from a forgotten lit gas lamp?

 

[doitall]

And would homes lit by gas smell of burnt gas? (Thinking the smell of a boiler flue) Did people used to get CO poisoning more often in the past from a forgotten lit gas lamp?

Still got a working one indoors.

Very difficult to get the mantles now, I have 1 Veritus mantle left after that the lights out of business.

 

[Onetap]

Very difficult to get the mantles now, I have 1 Veritus mantle left after that the lights out of business.

Do the mantles for camping lights fit those?

 

[doitall]

Not tried it onetap but I intend too see whether I could tie one on to the existing ceramic ring.

The one in use is at least 30 year old so not desperate yet.

 

[sooey]

Still got a working one indoors.

Very difficult to get the mantles now, I have 1 Veritus mantle left after that the lights out of business.

It wasn't bought on the morn of the day that you were born was it dia?
Keep the fooker going if it was.

 

[doitall]

I bought then in the 60s the re-installed them when we moved to Bath in the early 70s.

Quite sure they came from Suggs.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Did people used to get CO poisoning more often in the past from a forgotten lit gas lamp?

Probably; I remember reading at school (I think it was My Pal Spadger) that in the mill they turned the gas on at the main tap for the lights then the lamplighter went through the mill and if you were at the end of the line the mill workers felt faint from the unlit gas.

Also Victorian ladies had a habit of maidenly swooning which was probably down to a combination of gas and being laced into 10" waist corsets.