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Historic Gas Times%u2022 Issue 101 %u2022 December 2019 %u2022page5closely resembling lamp built with the Littleton Principle from scratch, simply became the %u2018Littleton Lamp%u2019.For the %u2018aficionados%u2019 of gas lamps who would know the Littleton as the lamp with its somewhat squatter, curvaceous body whilst the Rochester has the taller, parallel-sided body.The Rochester was designated as %u2018a very similar model to the Littleton with all its great advantages but having a specially constructed stormproof casing, for use in unusually exposed positions%u2019. In due course they did rationalise the design to the two shapes we know, partly I suspect, to avoid understandable confusion!By the year 1912 hundreds of thousands of lamps were being converted all over the world because it had been demonstrated that the Littleton principle both developed the greatest illuminating duty from the gas consumed and reduced the maintenance cost of mantles. The fact that the traditional square lanterns continued to be sold, despite their obvious disadvantages compared to the new lanterns, may well be because of the huge numbers of 8 ft to 10 ft posts which would also have needed to be replaced to take best advantage of the extra power available. Bear in mind that the levels of acceptable illumination at the time meant that a 14 in Windsor would frequently have had only one No.1 mantle and a 16 in only two! A single No.2 mantle was about equivalent to a 40 w light bulb so as you can imagine the spread of light was very modest.This very modest level of illumination, however, had just been accepted as %u2018the norm%u2019 so that when the electricians started demonstrating electric light with a better performance, the public and the local authorities thought it was an amazing improvement. William Sugg was furious because the gas men had never really attempted to improve or upgrade the tens of thousands of gas lamps for which they were responsible, claiming that it would be more expensive and that no-one would want to pay for it. What they had not realised was that the electrician%u2019s costs were already much higher but no-one was looking at the costs, just the performance!As an example of how important William Sugg considered improved lighting, when Tower Bridge was lit by Suggs at its opening on 30th June 1894 the lamps were all open flame. The Times of Oct 22nd 1901 just seven years later carried an advert from Suggs saying %u201cThe Tower Bridge has just been brilliantly re-lighted with William Suggs Patent High Pressure Gas Incandescent Burners%u201d, as had Blackfriars Bridge and %u201cat least hold their own with both the County Council%u2019s and the City of London Company%u2019s efforts in electric lighting%u201d. Not only did they %u2018hold their own%u2019 but they were considered perfectly white and unwavering by comparison with the electric lamps which suffered from many failures. To be continued...Christopher SuggAdvert for Re-Lighting Tower Bridge with High Pressure Incandescent Burners in 1901. This year will see the 125-year anniversary of the opening and, although no longer gaslit, examples of the original lamps can be seen in the museum inside the towers.MORE ABOUT WEST HARTLEPOOLAND IT%u2019S GAS-LIT LIGHTHOUSE OPTIC - BY JULIA ELTONGas was first used for navigational lights in 1821 at Swansea and Holyhead. At Swansea pier a strange device was installed in the shape of an anchor formed of gas pipes pierced with holes.1 It used coal gas and by 1834 had been discontinued %u2018owing to its irregularity and uncertainty%u2019.2 Holyhead Lighthouse was thus the first proper lighthouse to use gas. Supplied by a purpose-built gasworks on Salt Island, it had %u2018twenty brilliant lights of oil gas, having reflectors plated with silver, and displaying a strong white light%u2019.3 The lamps must have been Argand lamps adapted for gas. Parabolic reflectors combined with Argand lamps, generally lit with oil, had been the standard form of lighthouse illumination since the 1790s but after Holyhead a few more gaslights were installed. By 1845 Seaham lighthouse, Dover South Pier light and Stonehaven, Greenock and Workington harbours had gas lights, though using coal gas,4 as did the North Pier lighthouse at Sunderland.5 However, they were all installed by local Harbour Boards since the main lighthouse authorities, Trinity House and the Northern Lighthouse Board, remained committed to oil lamps. Apart from Holyhead with its tier of 20 reflectors and lamps, the others were mostly small harbour lights, some using a single reflector.In 1819, the French engineer, Augustin Fresnel, began to revolutionise lighthouse illumination by means of refracting and reflecting prismatic glass lens which enclosed the light source in a glass cage.