Gas Lamp
Gas Lamp
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- This gas lamp was used in the Washington, D. C. public schools during the second half of the 19th century. The Argand burner produces a 6-10 candlepower lamp, depending on how much gas is supplied to the combustion chamber. The gas enters through a line connected to the lower protrusion. This fills the lamp with gas, which issues from the fine mesh holes at the top which the flame is lit. The lamp is protected from side drafts by the glass chimney, which also increases combustion by allowing the heated gas to escape while oxygen enters from below.
- Manufactured gas was created by coal combustion, a much cheaper fuel than the oils it replaced. While manufactured gas was used for lighting in the United States since 1816, Washington did not begin to use gas as a public utility until 1848, when Congress chartered the Washington Gas Light Company. The company located its factory at 26th and G, Northwest, where it supplied gas for the area until the land was purchased to build the Watergate Complex during the 1960s.
- Object Name
- Lamp, Gas
- Physical Description
- glass (overall material)
- brass (overall material)
- ID Number
- PH.326952
- catalog number
- 326952
- accession number
- 264801
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Industry & Manufacturing
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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