Antique 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.
Although Victorian style glass shades started to gather popularity in the time of Victoria, the queen of England of the 1800s, their beginnings stretch a hundred years before. The first experiments in trapping gas, and controlling its flow into a lamp device had just begun. A man named William Murdoch of England was one of the first to do so.
William Murdoch was employed by a company specializing in making steam engines for the mining industry. Because of his connection to coal mines, he was able to secure a supply of coal gas to do his experiments.
Murdoch’s first successes were for his own house and for his steam engine company. He lit both with gas lamps of his own design, which constituted a fantastic sight for onlookers at the time. It so amazed a colleague Samuel Clegg that he embarked on a new venture to create a company centered around the gas lamp.
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 effect of municipal-wide lighting is difficult to overestimate. Lighting on every street meant that streets were usable late into the night, enabling people to travel for leisure or work at many more hours of the day. Additionally, crime rates dropped in the streets when it became harder to conceal one’s identity in the glow of the 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 result was the rich period of Victorian glass lamp shades, defined by globular shapes with ornate designs on acid etched glass. The Victorian style is not the only one, for other styles such as TIffany, student, school house and hurricane shades proliferated as light glasswork became more common.
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