Tyne and Wear HER(1604): Whitley Bay, The Links, Sewer Gas Lamp - Details
1604
N Tyneside
Whitley Bay, The Links, Sewer Gas Lamp
Whitley Bay
NZ37SE
Gardens Parks and Urban Spaces
Street Lamp
Gas Lamp
Modern
C20
Structure
Joseph Webb, a Birmingham man, invented a sewer lamp in the 1890s, primarily to destroy sewer smells and germs. Contrary to popular belief, however, these lamps do not burn sewer gas, but ordinary town gas. The updraught created by the flame's heat conducts the sewer gases up through the hollow column and over the three or four lighted mantles, where they are purified before being released into the atmosphere. 10 lamps survive in Whitley Bay and Monkseaton, most or all probably dating to between 1900 and 1910. The legend "The Webb Lamp Co. Ltd." is on the door plate of each example. LISTED GRADE 2
3535
7278
NZ35357278
<< HER 1604 >> P. Syder, 1973, Shedding light on a Victorian light shedder, Gas World, 22/29 December, 1973
T. Henderson, 1993, Lighting up for the way we were, The Journal, 15 December, 1993
I. Ayris, 1992, Sewer Gas Lamps in Whitley Bay and Monkseaton
Dept. of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special ... Interest, 5/178; Brian Singer, Northumbria University, September 2015, Investigation of paints from objects on Whitley Bay waterfront for Kier North Tyneside