This article was written by Suzanne Sickler Ohl, an early member of the Tyrone Area Historical Society.  It was originally published in January 1993.

            With the arrival of the new year we, like everyone else, are making plans for the future.  But we also like to reflect on the beautiful Christmas just passed.  We are grateful to all the people who helped to make it a season of happy memories.

            While driving around to see the bright Christmas lights, we were inspired to research early lighting and what it meant to Tyrone.  Back in 1874 the streets of Tyrone, Pennsylvania were lit by twenty-four gas lights.  It wasn’t until 1888 that Tyrone had electricity and even that was on a limited basis.  As people slowly installed electricity in their homes they kept a few gas and kerosene lamps for emergencies.  Some people who experienced the snowstorm last month [1993] and the loss of electricity can appreciate those early concerns.

            As we have come to realize, over the years different generations of people owe much to those who have lived before.  One of the world’s greatest discoveries was fire.  It resulted in people learning how to conquer darkness.  The early settlers had sunlight and firelight, hence the practice of “to bed at dark and up at dawn.”  Ask any of our local men and women who have been in the Armed Forces in Alaska.  They loved summer with its twenty-two hours of sunlight.  But then came winter with the twenty-two hours of darkness.

            Starting a fire was a difficult task before the invention of matches in 1827.  Friction matches were considered one of the most important inventions ever.  Many Boy and Girl Scouts, who learned to use flint struck against iron or steel to create a spark to start a simple flame for their campfires, can attest to the value of matches.

            Following the discovery of fire for lighting, many different kinds of oil and animal fat and lamp forms were used.  The first actual lamp was little more than a concave stone or a crudely shaped metal vessel to hold meat drippings and a little floating wick.  In Colonial America people used wood, grease, oils, and candles for lighting.

            The Betty lamp was the first of the grease lamps, probably the most widely used lighting device in early America.  It is believed that the first governor of the Plymouth Colony bought an iron Betty lamp in Holland to bring to America.

            The Betty lamp, about two to three inches in diameter, is a shallow dish that can be oval, round, or triangular and made of different metals.  The bowl is filled with tallow or grease.  A wick is placed in the grease and pulled through the nose or snout of the bowl until a short end becomes visible.  This visible end of the wick is then lighted.  At the other end of the lamp is a handle to which is attached a short link chain with a slender iron pick to be used in freeing the wick when encrusted with too much soot.

            Betty lamps often were hung on the chair or mantle.  The name “Betty” came either from the word “betyng,” an oil used in the lamp, or from “besser,” the German word for better.  A firm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was selling these lamps up until the 1870s.  These lamps were still used in the rural areas until the 1900s.

            The Phoebe lamp, of the same period, is really a Betty lamp with a cup underneath the wick to catch the drippings.

            By far the most widely used fuel for lamps in the 1800s-1849 was whale oil.  This was because the whale industry was flourishing along the East Coast of the United States.  Also its odor was less obnoxious than lard oil, popular between 1833 and 1863.

            Animal fats were made into crude candles giving off a horrible smoke and smell.  Better quality candles, made at home, came from bees-wax or boiled bayberries.  Many farm families made tallow candles from the fatty part of sheep and beef.  Wicks were dipped in a kettle of melted tallow, removed briefly to allow for cooling, redipped continually until the dips became thicker and thicker.  The candles then were hung up to dry.

            In the early days of Tyrone, tinsmiths such as E. R. Neil and John Morningred made candle molds.  They were made in various candle mold sizes, from single to those which made two dozen.  These were eagerly sought after as a labor-saving device.

            A [wick trimmer], a scissor-like instrument, was used to trim the burnt wick end.  A douter, a little cone-shaped cap, was used to put out the candle flame.

            Kerosene and coal oil are the same thing and were the best of the oils used for light.  The year 1860, ten years after the settlement of Tyrone, was considered the beginning of the kerosene era when large quantities of this improved fuel became available.

            The first  kerosene lamp had a flat wick, later to be replaced by the cylinder type wick.  All lamps needed a glass chimney to protect the flame from the drafts.  Any size kerosene lamp with a handle was made after 1870.  The handle made it safer to carry the lamp.

            From about 1875 kerosene came into general usage with lamps being made in huge quantities and unlimited sizes and shapes.  The nutmeg lamp was a miniature shape.  It was adequate for the small flame required as a night light.

            The wall-mounted lighting devices generally had built-in reflectors.  At the end of the 19^th century nickel plated brass became very popular for everyday table and study lamps.  A large opal reflecting shade reduced glare and distributed the light over a wide area.  Prominent in the living room was the marble topped center table with the large kerosene lamp and two or three books.

            Simple electric adapters are available to convert kerosene lamps into electric lamps.  The lamps look the same except for the electric cord; even the chimney remains to give an authentic appearance.

            A common household chore for Saturday mornings was to take all the kerosene lamps to the kitchen.  There the chimneys were washed and the wicks were trimmed.  After being refilled with kerosene the lamps were returned to all the rooms in the house.

            This writer remembers a favorite experience was to spend a weekend with the F. W. Schneider family at Glen Lowrie in Decker’s Hollow were kerosene lamps were the only form of lighting.  Since electricity was the common form of lighting in Tyrone it was a novel experience for us in the 1930s to carry the kerosene lamp from room to room to light our way.

Vapo-Cresolene lamps were tiny lamps which doubled as a night light and cresolene room disinfectant.  Cresolene, a mixture of cresol and resin, was placed in a small metal pan and heated with the flame from a tiny lamp below it.  The Cresolene lamp was used during the late 1800s and the early 1900s.

Light was used to add hours to the working day as well as to provide for specific needs.  The farmer used the kerosene light when he went to the barn to care for his animals.  Many a cow was milked with a kerosene lantern hanging nearby.  People carried lanterns to all evening events.  Often a young couple’s dating hours were regulated by the amount of kerosene in a lamp – when the light grew dim it was time for the gentleman to go home.  At night it was the lantern which helped the father to go for the mid-wife and provide the light at the birth of the new baby.

Railroad crews required a rugged, dependable lantern both for lighting and for signaling.  Most railroad lanterns were the property of the railroad and were often marked with the railroad’s initials, such as PRR (Pennsylvania Railroad).  Railroad parlor cars used a candleholder shaped lantern in a wall bracket mounting for lighting.

Each form of transportation had its own special requirements.  Bicyclists, fortunate enough to have lamps mounted on their bicycles, could travel safer in the darkness.  Buggies had lamps suspended at the back and front.  A highly polished reflector was used in the front lamps to direct a beam for illuminating the road.  Automobiles, including the famous Ford Model T, used kerosene lamps with suitable lens for providing both white and red tail lights.

Gas, made from coal, came into general use in the 1850s to 1880s until kerosene and electricity took over as the popular lighting.  Gas illumination required pipes for the gas to be carried into the homes with burners being placed on wall brackets, hung from ceiling fixtures, or applied to portable table lamps.  Interesting and decorative fixtures were made of metal, glass, and ceramic.  Shades could be used with open flame or mantle burners.

In the early 20^th century, homes were often supplied with gas and electricity.  Many fixtures were designed to use both.  As electric light flourished, use of gas in America for illumination has all but disappeared.  Now it is used primarily as a source of heat.  It is interesting to note that a revival of gas lighting is taking place.  Many gas companies advertise gas lights for outdoor lighting.

Now as we move closer to a new century this history of lighting should help to highlight the contributions made by past generations to the present – and even to those still to come in the future.  Little did Thomas Edison realize when he displayed his successful invention, the light bulb, on October 21, 1879 that he had opened a phase of lighting that was to become so common in the year 1993.  As expressed by a former teacher in Tyrone, Nancy Jane Lucas DeGrummond, “History is everything, was everything, and will be everything.”

 References

• Early Lighting:  A Pictorial Guide, the Rushlight Club, November 1972
• Early Lighting from Tallow to Oil in Early America, compiled by Elmer L.Smith, 1977 (Lebanon, PA:  Applied Arts Publishing)
• A Guide to Antiques (Chapter 8 – Lamps and Lighting)
• Know Your Antiques (Chapter 5 – Lighting Devices)
• Household Tools and Tasks
• Antiques in Pennsylvania Dutchland
• Tyrone History Notes