Gas lighting

Gas lighting an illumination shape, in which a combustible gas (previously town gas, natural gas, now ) is used as an energy source. Town gas was formerly produced by coal gasification in a coking plant or a gas plant and passed through a network of pipelines to consumers.

Public gas lighting

History

Since the beginning of industrialization, the combustion of gas to the further development of the traditional lighting employed the spirit of research in several European countries. 1684 saw the Irish Reverend John Clayton, that was win a combustible gas from coal. The same observation was made independently of him, the Briton Stephen Hales in 1727th The first working gas lamp took in 1785 in the Netherlands Johannes Petrus Minckeleers in operation. On September 21, 1799 in Paris Philippe Lebon received a patent for a gas-powered heat lamp ( "heat lamp "). The Scot William Murdoch and his assistant William Clegg set forth as the first coal gas on a large scale and also resulted in their factories a gas lighting. 1807/1808 succeeded Friedrich Albrecht Winzer, to take the first gas lamps for street lighting along the Pall Mall, City of Westminster in London running. The first gas company, the Chartered Company, was founded in 1810 confirmed by the British Parliament. In continental Europe, Wilhelm August Lampadius 1811 brought in Freiberg at his home at the first gas lantern. Since they were operated with an open gas flame without mantle, she was very faint compared to modern gas lights. In 1816 he taught at the Royal Saxon Amalgamierwerk neck bridge at Freiberg plant for coal gas production, which was until 1895 in operation. 1817 followed Josef Johann Prechtl in the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna.

The date of the first public gas lighting applies April 1, 1814, when it was replaced in the London parish of St. Margareth the oil lamps by gas lanterns. Soon the new light gained general acceptance because of its advantages. When William Clegg further technical improvements, such as cleaning the gas through lime water and a gas measuring apparatus introduced, the new technology triumphantly enter the civilized world.

The first communities with independent gas industry on German soil were Hanover and Berlin, which were provided by the Imperial Continental Gas Association with coal gas. This company came into competition with the British gas industry, as well as the company founded by Blochmann in Dresden in 1828. In the same year Schiele and garlic erected in Frankfurt am Main, a gas factory on oil shale base. In the village near Dresden Burgk Also 1828 was a gas generating plant taken on the basis of the local coal mining in operation and thus gas lighting was introduced in the first village in the world.

Quickly the new lighting spread over all the earth, and was celebrated by the inhabitants of large cities as technical progress. First, the gas lamps were lit by lamplighters. Later, the process was automated, so that the profession of lamplighter could be omitted. In the literature, the lamplighter "The Little Prince " by Antoine de Saint- Exupéry for example, played an important role in the book. Despite all the advantages of the gas lighting was still rather dim. First developed in the late 19th century by Carl Auer von Welsbach mantle multiplied the light yield.

Most German cities have already given in the 1960s to the gas lighting. However, today still burning in at least 40 German cities every night about 80,000 gas street lamps - the most in Berlin ( 43,900 ), followed by Dusseldorf ( 18,000 ), Frankfurt am Main ( 5700 ), Mainz (< 3.000 ) and Dresden (about 1,600, mostly in historical districts ) and food (150). Add to this the historical lights in the center of Essen ( Castle Square ).

Gas lighting in Vienna

In Vienna, around 45,000 gas lamps were recorded around 1913. 1920 began the transition to electric street lighting, for which economic reasons - the operation of a gas lantern caused an average cost of 1,300 shillings while the electrical equipment required only 310 shillings a year - and the light output - electric lighting had three times the brightness - were essential. Nevertheless, it should last more than 40 years before the last Vienna gas lantern went out. So were in Hietzing, Dobling Floridsdorf and still favorites to 1957 4.836 " gas islands' combined gas lamps in operation. So it was not until November 27, 1962, 16 clock until at a ceremony in the Sauraugasse in Hietzing, was brought by Councillor Karl Lakowitsch the last Vienna gas lamp to go off and switched on by Mayor Franz Jonas, an electric street lamp. Inspired by a song by Heinz Conrads, containing a veritable onslaught developed on the unused gas lanterns that were submitted by Viennese gas plant to the price of scrap 700-2000 Schilling. Within a short time more than 2,000 pieces of mostly held in the Art Nouveau style lanterns were sold, where there were also prominent names such as Gusti Wolf, Susi Nicoletti, Hans Moser and Hugo Gottschlich in the buyer list. Even in the United States, in the possession of Lotte Lehmann, to Japan, Italy, France and Spain in Vienna gas lamps were exported. The northernmost Vienna gas lantern was to be found north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, while the southern was to be found in South Africa. Even in South American countries Wiener lanterns were exported, according to the sales logs.

Pros and Cons

Dusseldorf set up for the preservation of gas lanterns, because they consider the continuous light spectrum and the cityscape formative originality particularly in historic and older neighborhoods worth preserving.

However, the energy cost of gas lighting be a multiple of a modern electric lighting with gas discharge lamps as their light output of the primary energy demand is low, and accordingly significantly higher despite occurring in electric lamps conversion and transmission losses in the power grid. In addition, a higher maintenance. It is therefore planned about in Berlin, which is currently still to replace approx 44,000 gas lamps completely by electric lighting. In Dusseldorf, Dresden and Mainz gas lighting is to be abolished.

More gas lamps

Even on a camping and outdoor gas lamps. These work on the same principle, relate their gas but usually from gas cylinders and gas cartridges.

A mobile gas lamp that today, however, has almost no meaning, the carbide lamp. It was often used underground as vehicle lighting and mining. Today, it is only in the cave research or in developing countries use.

Gas lamps also found in living rooms and took turns using candles or oil lamps. They were also fed as gas stoves from the gas mains were installed on the ceiling or wall and had one accessible means of two chains valve that was installed directly above the lamp in her dining and at the same time supporting tube.

Also with the Petromax mantle is operated; in their vaporized petroleum is burned instead of gas.

Gas lanterns Open-Air Museum Berlin

1978 was opened by the Senate Department for Construction, Housing and Transport in cooperation with the Gasag (Berliner Gas Aktiengesellschaft), the gas lanterns Open-Air Museum. The exhibition is located in the immediate vicinity of the S-Bahn Tiergarten, currently contains (2009) 90 exhibits from 25 German and 11 other European cities, making it the largest in Europe. The museum is maintained by the working group light on behalf of the German Museum of Technology Berlin scientifically.

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