Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
Historic Treasure of the Week -
November 6, 1983
By Dorothy Frey
Vigo County Historical Society
Gas lights lined city streets
This week’s treasure from the museum is a blown glass globe that topped one of the iron street lamp posts on a Terre Haute street corner. Also pictured is a device used to provide the spark necessary to light the gas mantle of the street light.
The glass globe was donated by W.G. Bell, and the gas lighter came from the Gillum Estate.
The history of artificial lighting is full of unanswered questions. One that is of special concern is. . . why did western scientists take so long in discovering how the Chinese knew the illuminating properties of natural gas in ancient times? They learned very early that a gas flame could be substituted for oil to fuel lighting devices, but that knowledge was quite late in coming to America.
Use of natural gas for street lighting started in Europe in about 1810, but it wasn’t until 1880 that gas street lamps with iron bases and blown glass globes were commonly in use in American cities.
Terre Haute was one of the earliest with Terre Haute Gas & Light Company receiving a gas franchise from the city in 1855. The year before, a franchise attempt failed.
Gas street lights were first turned on in Terre Haute Oct. 25, 1856. That year, a city ordinance was passed which prohibited lighting or extinguishing a public gas lamp without authority of the City of Terre Haute. The ordinance also prohibited the climbing of city light posts.
Some cities are returning to the use of gas for street lighting in restricted areas to re-create the atmosphere and romance of days gone by.
Lighting streets with gas was a tremendous advancement in American cities, and was greeted with enthusiasm. Terre Haute was no exception, as pointed up by a quote from a local newspaper article of Oct. 25, 1856: “Lighting our streets with gas has commenced. Night walking will not be brilliant.”
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.