Key Technological Developments in Lighting, 1880-1940

An important part of selecting period-appropriate lighting is understanding when crucial changes in lighting technology took place and the impact these changes had on fixture design.

Ca. 1880: The Carbon-Filament Lamp
Edison introduced the incandescent carbon-filament lamp (or light bulb) on New Year’s Eve, 1879. As the first safe and clean-burning artificial light source, his invention not only rang in a new decade, it also rang in a new chapter in human history. However, despite its bright future, it was actually many years before electricity was affordable and reliable enough to be practical for most homeowners. Early electric fixtures, besides taking advantage of the light bulb’s unique ability to point down, were generally variations on existing gas and kerosene themes. Not until after 1900 would electric lighting truly come into its own with fixture designs that stood wholly apart from competing technologies.

Ca. 1890 and 1900: The Welsbach Burner and the Inverted Welsbach Burner
While it would take some time before electricity became a real threat to gas, the writing was on the wall. Two related developments kept gas competitive in the race for hearts, minds and pocketbooks. The Welsbach burner, introduced around 1890, combined a rare-earth mantle with Bunsen-burner technology to create an incandescent gas burner that was significantly brighter than a standard open-flame burner or electric lamp (similar to a Coleman lantern today). A second development around 1900 was the Welsbach inverted burner, gas’s answer to the electric lamp’s uncontested ability to direct its light straight down without shadow. These burners were retrofitted onto many older fixtures and kept gas viable for another 10 to 20 years.

Ca. 1910: The Tungsten-Filament Lamp
The tungsten-filament light bulb revolutionized the lighting industry. Several times brighter than the Edison carbon-filament bulb – and initially viewed by many as a danger to the human eye – it opened the door for new fixture designs and new ways of lighting interiors. For the first time, a light source was strong enough that it could effectively be bounced indirectly off of walls and ceilings, creating soft ambient-lit interiors. Two results of this powerful advance in light output were more opaque shade materials and the indirect or semi-indirect bowl fixture. The tungsten bulb signaled the death knell for gas as a viable alternative to electricity. By the 1920s, not only were gas fixtures all but obsolete, but older electric fixtures from the carbon-filament era were also quickly replaced (resulting in many pre-1910 homes with deceptively old – but not original – lighting).

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