Lamplighter

history · jobs · street lights · city life

Lighting by hand. Before electric lights, lamplighters walked through streets every evening with a long pole to light hundreds of candles or oil lamps one by one so people could see where they were going.

Three types of light. Lamplighters worked with candles first, then moved to oil lamps that burned kerosene or other fuels, and finally to gas lamps that used special flammable gas piped through the streets.

Important job. Lamplighters were trusted workers in every city and town because people depended on them to arrive at dusk to light the streets safely for evening travel and activities.

Morning and night work. The job required lamplighters to wake up early to blow out or turn off the lights at sunrise, then return at sunset to light them all again, every single day.

Replaced by electricity. Once electric street lights were invented in the late 1800s, lamplighters gradually disappeared as cities switched to lights that turned on automatically without any person needed.