G'day all, I had wondered how the fuel supply tanks of hollow wire street lamps were replenished. Here is one way.
George, I forgot to add that the cart is a Kitson patent from 1899/1900. Yes, horse drawn. I bet there were a lot of lamp lighters that eeked out a living by lighting and snuffing the lamps. Some counties had 1,000 plus lamps so there was no way one or two blokes could light all those lamps by the allotted time. It was important the lamps were lit by the agreed upon time between the council and the light contractor. There were penalties involved if lamps weren't lit on time. There could be fierce dramas over street lamps. Some councils would wish to change from gasoline to electricity, others wanted to change from electricity to gasoline. Just whom owned the lamp posts often began lengthy and costly litigation. If the initial lighting was gasoline and the council decided to give them the boot and go for electricity, the gasoline contractors would scream like stuck pigs if the electricity contractor used the same posts as the gasoline lamps. And of course, vice versa. Electric cables would be cut and stolen in the dead of night. Gasoline lamps would be smashed. The dramas went beyond street lamps too. Sometimes gasoline gas machines or electric power plants were run from a basement in the middle of a business district and the owner of the plants would snap up a few customers that he supplied with the one common plant. Often, they would run wires or pipes from the basement of one building to the offices/stores of the next. They would use existing street lamps and posts to string their wires and pipes along. Of course, once an owner of the street lamps or posts were tipped off, they would scream blue murder. Some councils would stop water supplies to business's that wouldn't remove the wires or pipes. Again, often lengthy litigation took place with lots of dirty tricks by all sides inbetween. Even natural gas caused all sorts of dramas. Usually, the contractor that initially laid the pipes considered that pipe to be theirs. If a council went with another contractor the initial contractor would turn the gas off saying the pipes were his and if the new contractor wanted to use them he would have to pay and pay handsomely. Blue bloody murder was at its best again.
Hello Matty, thanks for sharing that and the link below shows a photograph of a horse drawn fuel business which may be of interest, just scroll down the page. Shetland photos.
