And Then There Was Gaslight…

In early colonial days, gas manufactured from coal provided both domestic and street lighting. The first gas lighting appeared in Victoria on September 28, 1862, provided by the Victoria Gas Company. The Colonist headlined the story "Gas At Last!" and reported:

Yesterday at three o'clock, Mr. Murphy, Manager of the Gas Works, filled three of the retorts and commenced the Generation of Gas… Mr. Murphy expects to light gas, for the first time in the city, at eight o'clock tonight, in front of Carroll's liquor store on Yates Street; and several stores will be lighted tomorrow evening.

Gaslights, it was hoped, would replace whale-oil lamps and tallow candles. But gas did not cast a particularly bright light. Its performance improved greatly about the turn of the century, but not enough to stop the swing to electricity for lighting-once electricity overcame its own teething troubles. However, gas continued to be promoted for heating and cooking, as it is today.

At the start, the gas distribution system was confined mainly to the downtown area of Victoria and its neighbourhoods. Customers were almost all commercial establishments, such as the ubiquitous saloons, but some street lighting also appeared. For many years the streetlights were turned off at 12:30 a.m., when honest citizens were presumably safely home in bed. By 1887, Vancouver and New Westminster also had gas for lighting.

The first gas appliances were simple. They included space heaters that were little more than tin boxes hooked up to the nearest gas jet by a rubber hose. Stoves were larger but also basic.

In the early days, manufacturing gas was a primitive business. Workers pushed wheelbarrows of coal and shovelled it into retorts by hand. (Cranes were an unheard-of luxury.) Pulverizing and distilling the coal and then extracting gas was laborious and dirty work, and the final product was somewhat unstable and dangerous. Once manufactured, gas was piped underground to streetlights and to the few homes that used it for cooking or heating.

Gas fitters, who maintained the gas distribution system, were supplied with a horse and carriage for the job. T. R. Meyers was a long-time BCE employee who wrote for and edited many company publications including an unpublished book, 90 Years of Public Utility Service on Vancouver Island. Meyers wrote about the gas fitters' work in the BCE Employees' Magazine.

The early gas meters were of the "wet" variety. A certain amount of water had to be maintained in the meters or they would not work. Early gas meter readers carried a water can with a long spout in one hand and very often a coal-oil lantern in the other to enable them to read the meters in the dark cupboards and cellars in which they usually were placed. Whether Victoria had colder winters in those days or the meters were placed in unusually exposed positions is not clear. Anyway, these wet meters were likely to freeze in winter weather. This not only meant the meter might split, it would also effectively cut off the supply of gas. Customers were warned on the bill that this freezing possibility was strictly their headache. It advised this: that it could be overcome by adding alcohol to the water in the meter. If alcohol were not available, it was suggested that a good grade of Scotch whisky would do just as well.

Over the years, the Victoria Gas Company improved production and expanded distribution. However, gas lamps, especially for public lighting, were still not effective and safety was a continuing concern.