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Victorian Light Shades In The 1800s

Glass lamp shades from the Victorian era are still in widespread use today despite having been formally replaced by modern era electrical lamp shades. There are numerous reasons as to why they continue to be popular in this age: their aesthetic appeal to those interested in classical decor, and their persistent high functionality as light bulbs and gas flames are both easily accommodated by the same sized shade.

Victorian style glass lamp shades became popular during the Victorian age of the United Kingdom, but their history goes back further to the time of the very first gas lights. In the late 1700s in the United Kingdom, a man by the name of William Murdoch was the first to experiment with using gas to fuel a flame for lighting purposes.

At the time, he worked in a steam engine company, working on coal mining technologies. In his spare time, he tried manipulating coal gas for lighting.

His initial forays involved hooking up both his own residence and the buildings of his employer. He designed and fashioned lamps himself, and fascinated the generation's onlookers who came from all over town to gawk. Likewise, his coworker Samuel Clegg was amazed by the sight so much that he quit his position at the company to start up a gas light firm.

Yet even the story of these two men is incomplete for in Germany an inventor by the name of Winzer would file a claim for inventing gas-powered lighting independently a few years later. Parallel developments occurred again in neighboring France where an inventor named Lebon came up with gas-powered home lighting for his own use.

The impact of the first city-wide lights is hard to overstate. City-mandated lights meant that streets could become highly usable even in the evening hours, extending hours of commerce and travel. In addition, the streets became much less hospital to criminals who found it harder to commit crimes in the glare of the gas lamps.

The effects extended to the indoors as homes began to install gas lamps and glass lamp shades. This lead to the development of an artistic and home design industry, spawning luminaries such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, who worked on devising and perfecting glass lamp shades.

The earliest home shades used glass as the raw material. Glass was highly malleable and could be shaped into different kinds of profiles. These shades were also characterized by stylistic etchings on the outer surface. The basic shape was a globe to shield the gas-fired flame, and a round opening on the top to release heat.

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