Lighting in the Home

Kerosene or Coal Oil Lamp, c. 1900 Lamp Oil for kerosene lamps was one of the many products to come from the refineries in East London.

A variety of lamps and candles were used for lighting the home in the 19th century. Wax candles, common before 1850, were made from tallow (fat from sheep or cattle) and were usually formed in a mold. By 1860, most commercially produced candles were made from paraffin derived from petroleum, these were more expensive, and the homemade tallow candles likely remained in use in rural areas. Oil lamps included the crusie which burned tallow or lard with a wick and was often placed over the hearth. There were also whale oil lamps, but by the 1840s this fuel was becoming expensive and alternative lamps that burned lard (from pigs) were developed. Then in the 1850s , Abraham Gesner, a geologist in Halifax, discovered a way to refine a burning oil from coal tar and later from petroleum, a product he named kerosene (from the Greek keroselaion meaning tar). In the late 1850s, petroleum reserves discovered in Pennsylvania and Lambton County could be easily obtained by digging shallow wells. Petroleum refineries in London were making kerosene, as well as paraffin, for candle manufacturers and lubricating oil for machinery. Kerosene's low price made the lamps popular. A plant that made illuminating gas from coal opened in London in the 1850s and supplied, first, street lighting and later, lighting for homes, public halls and stores. Outside of the cities though, the kerosene lamp burned on until rural electrification in the 1920s and 30s.