Name/Title
Welsbach Gas Street LampEntry/Object ID
2024.04.64Description
Pole connector/reducing collar ladder rest, harp and upper ring from a gas-powered street lamp. The parts are cast metal painted with decorative roping, fluting or leaf designs. Painted black.Context
The modern gas mantle was patented by Austrian Carl Auer von Welsbach in 1885. After the chemical formulation was perfected in 1892, the gas mantle became an important source of lighting until the introduction of electric lights in the early 1900s.Cataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2024.04Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionLocation
* Untyped Location
Sec 5E Shelf S6General Notes
Note
In the 1880s, Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858-1929) created fabric impregnated with thorium and cerium, which glowed incandescently when heated by burning gas. Mantels for gas lamps were the first industrial product to use rare earth elements, and led to an international trade in rare earth ores, especially monazite. Welsbach managed firms around the world that sold gas lamps for lighting streets, homes and businesses, which shaped the visual landscapes that millions of people inhabited from the 1890s into the 1930s.
In the United States, the Welsbach Incandescent Gas Lighting Company had offices on Walnut Street in Philadelphia, and a factory on the Delaware River at Gloucester, New Jersey. Many of the factory workers were women, who sewed the fabric mantels and packed the mantels into packages for sale across the country.
Source: https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/hliewunCreate Date
August 12, 2024Update Date
August 16, 2024
