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European History: 1600s-1800s
 Gaslights

Gaslights
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.5

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    caricature, gaslight, humorous, jets, well-known, popularity, inexpensive, novels, daytime, candlelight, reading, nighttime, elegance, public, natural, wick
     content words:    Pall Mall, In England, William Murdock, In Germany, Friedrich Winzer, Phillippe Lebon, United States, In Victorian

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Gaslights
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Caption: "A Peep at the Gas-lights in Pall Mall", a humorous caricature of reactions to the installation of the new invention of gas-burning street lighting on Pall-Mall, London, engraved 1809.
 
2     If the idea of gaslight brings an image to mind, it is probably a Victorian one. Some people might picture a scene with a lamplighter going about his evening duties lighting the street lamps. Others might picture a formal parlor lit by gaslights. Either way, the scene is Victorian.
 
3     Gaslights were one of the things that gave the Victorian era its character. They helped to bring in a new age in which people felt safe to walk along the streets in the evening. It was an age in which friends and families could spend an evening at home playing games or reading in a brightly lit parlor.
 
4     Gaslights were first used in the 1790s as inventors in several countries tried using gas to light their homes. In England, William Murdock lighted his house using coal gas as fuel. In Germany, Friedrich Winzer patented the coal gaslight, and in France, Phillippe Lebon used gaslights to light up his house and gardens.
 
5     The first large scale use of gaslights, however, was not for lighting homes but for street lights. Pall Mall, London, led the way in 1807 when it lit up its street lights with gaslights.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
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