"Farewell to the leeries" - Sepia Saturday

When I saw this week's prompt of a Glasgow street, I thought 'Oh. No!'

'I've done omnibuses and buses before.'

But when I looked closer this is what I saw.

The Glasgow Herald of 2nd September 1971 carried the headline, "Glasgow says farewell to the leeries."

Reading further it reported that the Lord Provost had lit the only remaining gas lamp in Glasgow for the last time. In 1780 street lighting was provided by 9 oil lamps and the first gas lamps dated from 1818.

We know that London had gas lamps earlier that that,Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) recorded the reactions to gas lights in Pall Mall.

Caricature - engraved by Thomas Rowlandson, 1809 from a drawing by Woodward

The dialogue reads:

Well-informed gentleman

"The Coals being steam'd produces tar or paint for the outside of Houses -- the Smoke passing thro' water is deprived of substance and burns as you see."

Irishman

"Arragh honey, if this man bring fire thro water we shall soon have the Thames and the Liffey burnt down -- and all the pretty little herrings and whales burnt to cinders."

Rustic bumpkin

"Wauns, what a main pretty light it be: we have nothing like it in our Country."

Quaker

"Aye, Friend, but it is all Vanity: what is this to the Inward Light?"

Shady Female

"If this light is not put a stop to -- we must give up our business. We may as well shut up shop."

Shady Male

"True, my dear: not a dark corner to be got for love or money."

All this reminded me of the 1940 novel by Michael Sadlier, later made into a film and even later a BBC TV series, called  'Fanny by Gaslight' - an exploration of prostitution in the Victorian London of the 1880s. But that's a different theme.

My researching for gas lights and men up ladders led me even further afield.

Stockholm Gas Light - Gustav Adolf Hallqvist tends his last light at Norrbro, 18 December 1953
(By Gunnar Lang)

Installation of lights in Berlin required more than one man and a much bigger ladder.

August Fuhrmann - Installation of Gas Lights in Berlin 1890

I have a vague recollection of houses in the village where I was born that were lit by gas, but can't think of where I have seen any gas street lights.

However anyone would remember seeing the greatest gas lights of all, wherever you are..

Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights
(Bear Lake, Alaska - US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt Joshua Strang)

In the Southern hemisphere you would see the Aurora Australis. Aurora are caused by solar particles colliding with gases (oxygen and nitrogen) in the Earth's atmosphere. It's the excited gas molecules that give the lights their colour.

To see what others have got excited about this week cross over to Sepia-Saturday-215.