Brilliant_ The Evolution of Artificial Light - Jane Brox [36]
Responsible housewives had to be vigilant about the quality of the oil they purchased. Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, in their 1869 guide to domestic science, The American Woman's Home, advised:
Good oil poured in a teacup or on the floor does not easily take fire when a light is brought in contact with it. Poor oil will instantly ignite under the same circumstances, and hence, the breaking of a lamp filled with poor oil is always attended by great peril of a conflagration. Not only the safety but also the light-giving qualities of kerosene are greatly enhanced by the removal of these volatile and dangerous oils. Hence, while good kerosene should be clear in color and free from all matters which gum up the wick, and thus interfere with free circulation and combustion, it should also be perfectly safe.
Even with quality kerosene, the simplest lamp found in the most modest of homes required meticulous daily attention. Only a well-cleaned lamp would give off good light, and a poorly trimmed wick made for a flickering and smoky flame, which left soot on the chimney and sent soot throughout the house. Indeed, the ritual of spring-cleaning was largely a response to a winter's worth of soot from hearths and lamps. But daily cleaning was also a matter of safety. In the late nineteenth century, in the United States alone, five thousand to six thousand people a year died in lamp accidents. Although many of these were due to adulterated oil, clumsiness, and carelessness—spills and breakages, or someone leaving a lamp too near to curtains or bedclothes, failing to lower the wick before blowing out the light, or trying to extinguish a lamp by blowing down the chimney—inattentive or inexperienced housekeeping increased the danger. If the burner was dirty, the lamp might overheat the chimney and break the glass. If the oil in the reservoir was too low, the vapors could ignite when someone carelessly jarred the lamp. A Connecticut newspaper, the Willimantic Chronicle, often reported lamp accidents due to "exploding lamps":
Wed., September 1, 1880: The house of George Leavens in Danielsonville came near being consumed by fire by the explosion of a kerosene lamp last week.... Wed., August 29, 1883: Early Saturday morning the body of Simon B. Squires was found in the back yard of the Southport National bank, Southport, burned in a shocking manner. It is thought he rose during the night when his lamp exploded and set his clothes on fire.... Wed., April 23, 1884: Mrs. Mary McGoldrick, aged 73 years, of New Haven, Ct., and Emma O'Brien, aged 3 years, of Erie, Pa., were yesterday burned to death by the explosion of kerosene lamps.
The authors of The Woman's Book, a guide to household management published in 1894, went into a lengthy, precise discussion about the cleaning of lamps:
There is as much wit goes to the care of lamps as to the boiling of eggs. In the first place they should receive due attention every day.... Carry the lamps to the kitchen or pantry and set them down upon double-folded newspapers. If they have porcelain shades, wipe these.... Should they need washing, put them into a basin of hot water which you have softened with a little ammonia or borax.... This done turn up the wicks of the lamps and with a bit of stick or match scrape off the charred edges.... Remove the rims that surround the burners and wipe them off with old flannel.... Now fill the lamps and do it carefully.... Wipe the outside of the reservoirs after you have filled and closed them, that the persistently percolating oil may have not unnecessary encouragement to exude. Be very sure that no drops of oil have trickled down upon the outside of the lamps.... Give a final rub to the outside of each lamp, replace chimney, rim, and shade, and thank Fate that this, one of the least pleasant of the housekeeper's duties, is done for the day.
However much work the lamps