[p.116]In
1770 it was estimated that the cost of lamps, lighting the city, etc.,
was £760 a year. In 1791 the city lamps were ordered to be
114 feet apart, angularly. In 1806 the cost of lighting each lamp was
$11 a year. There were 1,556 public lamps and 97 private lamps in the
city in 1809, which cost to light $9.50 each for eight months. In the
summer of 1812 efforts were made to substitute something better than
oil, with which the streets had been dimly lighted, and an experiment
was made with gaslight in the park. Nothing definite resulted, however,
though four years afterward, on June 18 and November 18, 1816, a
“long, learned and favorable report on the subject of
gaslight was made by a committee of the corporation.” On
January 27, 1817, “another detailed report was made in favor
of lighting the city with gas, from the trial made under the inspection
of Dr. Hare, which cost $5,927.25 (Including $1,400 for seven months or
his salary). The experiments were made in an old building near the east
corner of the City Hall and temporary tin pipes were laid through
Chatham street and Broadway as far as Dey street, and a few store
windows lighted up. The light was admired, but the city authorities
shrank from the expense or laying the requisite iron pipes, etc., which
it was estimated would cost for the whole city several hundred thousand
dollars.” In April, 1823, the corporation granted to the New
York Gas Company “the exclusive privilege for thirty years of
laying cast iron gas pipes in the streets south of Grand street, and
reserved the privilege of using the gas for the street lamps, on the
same terms and cost as oil.” On May 11, 1825, the company
began the proposed improvement by laying gas pipes in Broadway, on both
sides of the street, from Canal street to the Battery. From these they
were gradually extended over the southern part of the Island, though
for years the city presented a checkered appearance, with one block
dimly lighted by the ancient oil lamps and the next brilliantly
illuminated from the works of the new gas company. In 1830 the
improvement was extended to the northern part of the Island by the
Incorporation of the Manhattan Gas Light Company, with a capital of
$500,000, for the purpose of supplying the upper part of the city not
included within the limits of the New York Company.
When gas was introduced into the city below Canal street opposition
arose to the innovation. Many of the citizens were afraid to have it in
or near their dwellings. All sorts of catastrophes were predicted. Had
it not been for the sterling qualities possessed by Samuel Leggett, who
introduced gas into his own residence in Franklin Square, and invited
the public to witness the utility of the new source of light and
comfort, its introduction would have been delayed longer. Leggett
founded and was president of the first gas company in New York in 1823.
It would not be proper to leave this subject without giving the opinion
of an authority on the gas works as a “place of interest, an
object of great importance, and highly curious in all its
details.”
“The manner in which Broadway and many of the public
buildings and shops in the principal streets are now lighted with
gas,” says the record of 1829, “and the effect it
has upon the eye of a stranger is as novel as it is [p.117] gratifying, and
forms one of the principal modern improvements, especially when
contrasted with the first attempt at lighting the streets made by our
ancestors in 1697.
“The establishment for the
making at gas is one of the largest edifices in the city, and is
situated in Rhynder street, corner of Hester, near the east part of
Canal street. The gas, formed from oil, is conducted into the great
reservoirs, or gasometers, which contain each 5,000 barrels, and are
equal in size to a large brewer's vat, being 60 paces in circumference
and 20 feet in depth, The gas is measured by a curious machine called a
meter, and passes out into all the principal streets south of Grand
street through pipes of cast iron, of various sizes, from 6-inch to
2-inch bore, and by lateral pipe into the private houses, where the
company pipes end, and the whole interior fitting is done at the
expense of the person using the gas. The company supplies the public
with all gas by the meter only. The charge for every cubic foot
registered is $1. The meter is a patent machine made in London, and is
sold or rented to each customer, as they may prefer, the cost being
from $16 up, according to size,” For a ten light meter in the
old days 44 cents a quarter was charged; fifteen light, 62½
cents; thirty light, $1.50. Those purchasing meters from the company
kept them in repair at their own cost. Here is a scale showing the
comparative quantity of light given out by each burner generally: The
one jet burner gave a light equal to one mould candle; the two jet
burner, 2 1-1/2 mould candles; the three, 4-2/3. A ten hole argand gave
a light equal to ten mould candles. And here is an interesting end of
the record: “By regulating the cock, the quantity at light
given out, and, consequently, the gas consumed by each burner, may be
reduced at pleasure. The comparative cost of the oil gaslight is
considerably less than the cost of that produced from mould candles or
from oil lamps. But the cleanliness, the beauty and the convenience of
the gas over any other light is the principal cause of its being
preferred, without reference to expense.”
In 1829 the company had laid fifteen
miles of castiron pipes in the principal business streets. The pipes
were imported from England, and “were
subjected to a severe proof to test their quality before being
used.”
From: Cradle Days of
New York (1609-1825), by Hugh Macatamney, publ.
Drew and Lewis (1909), pages 116-117, from the series of articles
which appeared in the New
York Tribune under the title "Little Old New York." (source) Digitized by Google
