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The need to improve the illuminating power of gas after some 70 years of open flame burners was accelerated by the development of electric lighting systems which were clearly going to be the future competition. Whilst the invention of the mantle is accredited to Carl Auer who was conferred the title of "Dr Carl Auer von Welsbach of Vienna" by the Austrian government for his work, he was a pupil of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen after whom the famous 'bunsen burner' is named. Bunsen had been working on the chemical action of flame and needed a non-luminous flame, the exact opposite of all the lighting flames that were in use at that time. He experimented at length with the admixture of gas and air through the relative size of the openings for both gas and air until he achieved the stable bunsen burner. His pupil Carl Auer later used this clean burning flame whilst investigating the properties of rare earths. The story goes that he discovered almost by chance that an intense glow came from playing the flame on a splash of the chemical on the edge of an asbestos sheet. Doubtless hundreds of experiments later he produced the first incandescent mantle with a mixture of rare earths so starting the largest and most important revolution in the world of gas lighting. Indeed the mantle probably extended the use of gas for lighting by as much as 50 years. (Some details extracted from 'Lighting by Gas' by Dean Chandler 1936)

The photos at the top illustrate the two most common mantle arrangements developed for use on coal gas. On the left is a typical 'upright' mantle in which the long sock-like mantle is supported by a hook from above with the open end sitting just over the head of the burner. The gas/air arrangement is almost identical to the bunsen burner whilst the glass cylinder channels the air to pass up the tube drawing the mixture strongly up the inside of the mantle. Without the glass this burner will not operate properly. It is very similar in application to the chimney on an oil lamp and also on the argand open flame burner.

On the right is the 'inverted' mantle suspended on it's ceramic nozzle. The glass in this case is largely decorative but with the important task of keeping the mantle as hot as possible for maximum incandescence and for avoiding draughts - which is much the same thing. However, the burner will operate without the glass. The inverted burner was a development of the upright burner designed to point the light in the direction it was required. An upright burner would always produce a considerable shadow around its base whilst lighting the ceiling admirably!

One of the immediate advantages of the upright mantle was the ability to retrofit this burner assembly directly in place of the open flame burner in both interior and particularly street lighting and William Sugg manufactured tens of thousands of replacement burners for this purpose.

This page from the 1909 catalogue illustrates a range of wall brackets, very typical of the art nouveau age, shown fitted with upright mantle burners which are noted at the bottom as "Burners and glasses extra". This of course would allow for the fitting of a simple open flame burner if the customer preferred, although it would seem unlikely with the improvement in light performance.

This interior is a typical 1930's bedroom with two inverted mantle wall bracket fixtures. The fixture beside the window is the 'Elite' inverted burner with 'Handsome Wall Plate' as shown in the catalogue below. The one on the right is a standard wall bracket including glassware with a fancy material shade hung clear of the glass to reduce the heat on it as can be seen in the close-up below. The small tube leading off to the right is the remote control from a switch by the door.

There are a great many interior fixtures that were produced by William Sugg & Co. over the period from 1900 to post WW2 when interior gas lighting finally succumbed to the electric competition. I hope to include a selection of these in due course.

In the meantime the following pictures should provide a taster:

Here are two interesting interior gas lights that show the ingenuity of the Sugg designers in their efforts to provide gas lights for every application. On the left is an adjustable pendant light known as the 'Directive' "to focus a powerful light on any desired object" according the literature. On the right is a design for use in possibly explosive atmospheres using 'Davy' gauze as used in a miner's lamp.

This pendant gas fixture is typical of the art deco style that preceded WW2.

LOTS TO COME!

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