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Lighting before electrcity?

PotomacBob ๐Ÿšซ

If you could travel back in time to before the U.S. Civil War (or any other time before there was electricity), what would have been the means of lighting a country inn or one of the places of lodging near a mineral springs, where people went for "the taking of the waters"? Assuming those places were in rural areas where no municipal natural-gas service was available, did they have propane or something like it. I've heard of "coal oil" but not sure what it is, though I've heard it was similar to kerosene. Was there something other than candles?

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@PotomacBob

Was there something other than candles?

Oil lamps primarily. Oil lamps go back thousands of years.

The specific kind of oil used will depend on exactly where and when.

The main product of the whaling industry in the 19th century wasn't meat, it was whale and sperm oil for use in oil lamps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_oil

Then there was kerosene.
https://www.britannica.com/science/kerosene

Discovered by Canadian physician Abraham Gesner in the late 1840s, kerosene was initially manufactured from coal tar and shale oils. However, following the drilling of the first oil well in Pennsylvania by E.L. Drake in 1859, petroleum quickly became the major source of kerosene. Because of its use in lamps, kerosene was the major refinery product for several decades until the advent of the electric lamp reduced its value for lighting. Production further declined as the rise of the automobile established gasoline as an important petroleum product.

Kerosene was a primary lighting source until it was displaced by electric lamps.

In the US in the 19th century, lighting will be a mix of candles and oil lamps (whale oil and/or Kerosene), with the exact mix depending on the specific year.

Diamond Porter ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Before kerosene or whale oil, the oil would have been olive oil in olive-producing countries, and animal fats like lard or tallow everywhere else. Lard smells like cooking bacon.

If you couldn't afford lamps or candles, the only indoor light would come from the fire.

Replies:   LupusDei
LupusDei ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Diamond Porter

If you couldn't afford lamps or candles, the only indoor light would come from the fire.

Indeed. There's a Latvian peasant late night handiwork lighting method that sounds almost insane by today's standards. It was... (I obviously don't have language to speak about it in English, so stick with me) ...prepared quite thin very long slices of wood, typically pine wood, ideally from wind falls as those are naturally shattering along the year rings. So, half an inch to an inch wide, one year growth thickness, two and a half to three, perhaps up to four feet long wooden slices of soft wood (called skali), those were serially burned sticking them into a special stand at an angle (the low end is burning, the top end is in hold). They had to be changed every few minutes. A task commonly entrusted to a rather young child, elementary school age at most. Older children did more productive tasks.

Yet, that was how light was provided to multiple people working in a common room (including but not limited to spinning, knitting, sewing, practically all clothing was made in-house from the seed up) through the long hours of winter nights (solar day around Christmas time is only 6 hours here).

The practice was allegedly still present in nineteen century, albeit dropping out of favor for obvious safety reasons. Yet, candles was something the peasant homestead had to import, unless they ran a sufficiently large apiary, and even then, pure beeswax candles may smell good, but aren't the most practical. The hardship driven pursuit and later romantizised ideal was to only import salt and metal to one's homestead, with everything else regarded as luxury goods for bragging rights that can and must be substituted by own product in everyday use.

Michael Loucks ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Kerosene was a primary lighting source until it was displaced by electric lamps.

Fun fact โ€” it was primarily due to kerosene ('coil oil') that JD Rockefeller's Standard Oil was declared a monopoly.

They controlled something like 90% of kerosene production, and had vertical integration in exploration, refining, and distribution. They used this advantage to control much of the rest of the petroleum industry.

Ohio went after them first, and Standard of Ohio (SOHIO) was split off from Standard Oil in 1892 as a result of legal action in Ohio. The final blow came in 1911 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the trust busters in the Federal Government.

Out of that came Esso, Amoco, Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Conoco, Penzoil and others. THAT is how big Standard Oil was.

Replies:   Dominions Son  Rodeodoc
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Michael Loucks

Fun fact โ€” it was primarily due to kerosene ('coil oil')

Fun fact, kerosene was only made from coal tar for about a decade.

Kerosene was invented in the late 1840s. After the first oil well went into production in 1859, kerosene was made primarily from petroleum.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Fun fact, kerosene was only made from coal tar for about a decade.

Fully aware, but I included that because it was mentioned above.

Replies:   oyster50
oyster50 ๐Ÿšซ

@Michael Loucks

That's why "Coal oil" was synonymous with kerosene among the old folks.

oyster

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@oyster50

That's why "Coal oil" was synonymous with kerosene among the old folks.

They stopped making it from coal tar before the Civil War. I rather doubt that there's anyone still alive who actually used Kerosene made from coal tar.

Replies:   Michael Loucks  oyster50
Michael Loucks ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Dominions Son

They stopped making it from coal tar before the Civil War. I rather doubt that there's anyone still alive who actually used Kerosene made from coal tar.

Yes, of course. But I used it because it was still used when Ohio sued Standard Oil in 1892. Heck, it was still used in 1921, ten years after Standard Oil was broken up by the government. [Source]

oyster50 ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

It was a name used when I was a kid by my grandparents. It might've not been made from coal, but the name stuck, rather like 'Kleenex' or 'Coke'.

oyster

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@oyster50

It was a name used when I was a kid by my grandparents. It might've not been made from coal, but the name stuck, rather like 'Kleenex' or 'Coke'.

In the UK you can still get coal tar soap.

AJ

Rodeodoc ๐Ÿšซ

@Michael Loucks

Another fun fact. Rockefeller also invented the railway tank car. He quickly also had a monopoly on the transportation of crude and oil products. That company exists today as Procor.

oyster50 ๐Ÿšซ

@PotomacBob

I don't know how widespread it was, but I know of one Louisiana ante bellum plantation that had gas lighting fed by acetylene produced in a calcium carbide pit - drip a little water, get a little acetylene. Acetylene produces a fine flame for lighting.

I've used carbide lamps to blacken gunsights for competition. The smoke from the flame is a fine black carbon.

jimq2 ๐Ÿšซ

@PotomacBob

I used to use carbide lanterns for camping and caving. No worry about a battery dying, just add water & carbide rocks.

palamedes ๐Ÿšซ

@PotomacBob

My parents house was build in 1856 along the walls where build shelves that held oil lamps with a mirror mounted behind the lamps. In the bedrooms just inside the door about 4ft (121.9cm) where shelves that hold an oil lamp (about the size of a coffee mug) or a stem candle (single candle on a plate/candle stick holder) that you can carry around but had no mirror behind them.

While the oil lamps and mirrors may not be as bright as modern lights the 8 lamps with mirror backers in what they call the great room which is 40ft x 40ft (12M x 12M) had the room light up as a 45-60 watt light bulb with out casting shadows from someone standing in front of or near a single source of light.

The original owners of the house did have electrical lights installed in only the great room, dinning room and the kitchen in 1925. When my Dad bought the house in 1973 we didn't move in till 1975 as it took him that long to fully wired the house for lights and power as well as plumbing for running water and converting a downstairs bedroom/office into a bathroom to replace the outhouse.

irvmull ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@PotomacBob

acetylene produced in a calcium carbide pit

Yes, I've been in 1850's homes which had massive chandeliers that in olden days burned acetylene.
Fifteen or twenty small flames produced lots of light. A little house out back was where they produced the gas.
You needed servants to tend this process.
(That wasn't the only little house out back where gas was produced. But I digress.)

FantasyLover ๐Ÿšซ

@PotomacBob

Also alcohol lamps.

"Oil" also included olive oil and flax seed oil, as well as other plant-based oils.

I didn't see the question answered, but coal oil is like kerosene.

jimq2 ๐Ÿšซ

@PotomacBob

If you want to experiment with carbide, go to a hobby shop and get some Bangsite for a Big-Bang Cannon from The Conestoga Company. Dump a little in water and it will immediately start making Acetylene. The cannons are a lot of fun too.

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