emblematic figures of the nineteenth street, the gas lamps (or beaks gas) are an essential component of nightlife in the cities of the Industrial Revolution. Elements
recurring fantasy novels to their ghostly side ethereal light and descriptions of the urban era, mention their sometimes majestic brilliance, sometimes they give the wan's darkest streets.
go for a walk, if you wish, in the winding alleys of history, in light of the famous "gaslight".
From darkness to light
long associated with mine, coal gas, obtained by distillation of coal, has taken some time to attract scientists of the eighteenth century. He was regarded primarily as an obstacle to the use of basements around the dual threat he represented: its instability (the famous "gas explosions" that made many victims in the depths of coal mines) and toxicity (carbon monoxide, odorless, colorless and deadly).
It was not until 1733 that he be recognized as useful flammability and do not operate until the end of the century, very anecdotal.
The attention of researchers and it is sparked a race to the efficiency that will engage early nineteenth between France, Britain and Germany.
German Friedrich Winzer (naturalized English under the name Frederick Winsor) makes his first "thermolampe" from the flue gas timber, then it is the turn of Dr.Lebon in Paris to design the lighting his house entirely in coal gas, but it was William Murdoch, whose study of the various gases and launched the capture process, that we must truly public gas lighting.
The commissioning of the famous nose in 1812, is a revolution by itself: London installs its gas burners next to Westminster Bridge which extend their network into the entire center with the Westminster gaslight and coke company Founded by former German Frederick Winsor. The British capital will be immediately followed by Baltimore in 1816 and Paris in 1820.
But public lighting at a cost, as his supporters reject: previously, the laws of most European countries ordered the owners of the homes overlooking the main arteries lighting, each evening, a candle that would last all night, failing to pay a fine. "It's a country to bring light to his people and not the other way" say the defenders of modern lighting. Arguments to be heard, like those who predict huge profits over the long term.
The halos of artificial lights will make the streets safer and enable higher yields: the plants will now operate over 24 and never cease their production when the short winter days to complete.
We also associate the arrival of lighting to better education, Students can stay longer to read in the light of public lighting.
The appearance of the street lamps also created a host of jobs and restore luster (no pun) to the crystal. The craft remains the most emblematic of the lamplighter, who each evening, armed with his claw, triggered the release of gas, he then inflamed with a spirit lamp held at the end of a stick (The valves were in height to avoid pranks pranksters, but were sometimes lowered into the base of the lamppost).
The Lamplighter, as the gravedigger, become a figure of background recurring gothic novels: taking his position at dusk and dawn, he becomes witness to the strange night life of big cities and the curtain that opens and closes on the dark drama of the night .
"He who has never experienced the night may not know the joy of seeing the sun rise"
The night lights of the city delight as the advocates of modernism that some artists and novelists (like Proust in From Swann ) whose praise is no shortage in respect of this time recovered on the night. They give a new dimension to the lives of capitals, Paris and its particular nights sulfur, whose reputation will attract wealthy pleasure-seekers to Europe. The fall of darkness, it is also the brilliance and charm of neighborhoods amusements, cabarets and cafes lit terraces, open during the night ...
It should be noted that from 1830, the theaters and cabarets were using the oxyhydrogen light (from lime) much whiter, which had the advantage of not burning the oxygen in the air and does not vitiate, as did the city lights. Its possible risks of explosion, however, are larger and have caused serious accidents during the second half of the nineteenth century. The gas lights in homes remained strong rare, but it was not impossible for a mansion or a manor house are equipped with such modern facilities.
But for others, this trick and this pride is also a new challenge thrown in the face and a reflection of Heaven "two glass" which shines the dresses as much as it stresses the blackness poverty, by confining it in the shade, as described in Zola or Dickens ... Behind this curtain of light, the faces will be even more pale, dark circles and covered with dirt, as frightful specters that can approach the lights without ever going in and where all the "ugliness" are no longer concealed by darkness.
The light from gas burners takes for some romantic, a much less optimistic when it reflects, its light and ghostly white, another world, hostile, that should never have been revealed.
The shadows of the night widen and appear to move when the outlook does not ask about them, the faces of passers-by spotted in the streets half-lit are livid: Has it met a real person? A ghost? As a constant full moon, the glow of gas lamps is not reassuring warmth of the sun and illuminate that some parties while giving the impression of expanding areas of darkness.
The pallor of strange street lamps and shades that could take the gas combustion (blue, green or scarlet red sometimes, depending on its chemical content and impurities that sometimes crept into the bowl) then give the agonizing feeling of entering a ghost or hell territory and swing the unfortunate night owl into a nightmare world. A common effect of style which will appeal to many writers of fantasy novels, gothic and even police officers as Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde and Villiers de l'Isle Adam (at this point that is sometimes called "Gaslight fantasy stories such blending fantasy, thriller and Victorian atmosphere). The famous "Scream " Munch or the "Evening street Karl Johan " also show these horrible lights when night and day merge, losing rights in its most basic benchmarks.
A habit that reflects well the concerns of the Romantics against the industrialization and modernization of the century, with the fear that this "spotlight" on human misery and the challenge forces of nature to awaken ancient curses or terrible grievances ...
Use of "Gaslight" in Acheron.
Is it really worth it to dwell on the subject?
The light can easily contribute to the ambiance of your party and it is rather easy to integrate them into your descriptions without seeming too painful. The resurgence of these same images in the minds of your players: lanes wan Dickens harrowing corners of the grimy neighborhoods where Jack the Ripper progresses, all that remains familiar in the collective imagination.
The strange white light gas lamps will be the pretext for appearances and to optical illusions, shadows getting longer stretched in a supernatural way, when they will not just life. Figures and projections on the walls barely illuminated can be confusing and horrific scenes without projecting that the characters do not really see the opposite: an overview appalling murder through a sinister shadow theater, an inhumane form crawling in the streets which can not be seen as the contour by the play of light, a liquid uncertain dripping on the pavement illuminated by a pale shine a beam of light creating a surreal mist on the ground and a halo around the smoky lamp are all of stage effects that can disturb your sense of characters and plunge them into doubt. The game of
changing colors, caused by gas composition or by supernatural intervention, can also serve as an introduction to the intervention of the fantastic (the flame turns blue when the spout spectrum appears, the entry in fact change the Acheron lamplight ...) or reinforce a scientific thesis, according to the views of the characters.
Having nothing to do with the reassuring warmth of a candle or a fire, artificial light and cold will never bring the same comfort that could provide a real flame.
to you to use them as valuable allies in the nocturnal wanderings of your characters in the streets of major cities and transform these reassuring son of Ariadne in agonizing reflections illusory.
After all, turn off the lights might be less scary ...
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