Electrifying: The story of lighting our homes | Science Museum

The Costume of Great Britain: Lamplighter by WH Pyne, 1808

Despite significant advances benefitting the rich (such as a much brighter oil lamp with a circular wick developed by Ami Argand in 1780), real change in lighting our streets and homes only came when lighting technology began to develop on an industrial scale: first as gas lighting at the end of the 18th century and then as electric lighting from the mid-19th century onwards.

Most people first encountered these technologies not at home but in the street, or at work in the growing number of factories lit by night.

Gas lighting at home was increasingly popular among the middle classes in the 19th century, although it was usually frowned upon in bedrooms due to the unfortunate downsides of choking fumes, smoke, blackened walls and the risk of the odd explosion.

While gas provided relatively gentle illumination, the huge electric arc streetlamps which began appearing in the 1870s gave out an intense light.

Light was produced by an electric current which arced between two carbon rods—hence the name. The development of electric generators made them a practicable solution for lighting public spaces.

Arc lamp with mechanism controlled by electromagnet.

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Late 19th-century arc lamp. You can see the two carbon rods on the right-hand side in this picture.

Gas light still produced a familiar flame, but artificially generated electric light was something altogether new and exciting. It was produced almost as if by magic, the visible outlet of invisible electricity—albeit, in the case of arc lamps, with a rather strong smell and some noise.

Arc lights could illuminate huge areas: those installed on towers in 1860s New York lit up the street and several blocks around with a blinding light’. Some were even used to light fields, enabling agricultural labourers to work into the night—a far cry from a harvest governed by light-related circadian rhythms.