Kerosene/Paraffin Lamps for Different Purposes

Before the general introduction of electric lighting, the kerosene/paraffin lamp was almost the only type of lighting that was used in an adapted form in all areas of human activity. The fact that the electric and gas lighting could not take on the varied tasks always and everywhere was simply because both systems were completely dependent on an external infrastructure: Without power cables, you couldn't get electricity to the electric lamps, and without gas pipes you couldn't get gas to gas lamps. Electric lines required large turbines to generate electricity. Gas pipes had to be fed from huge gasometers, and the gas had to be produced from e.g. hard coal in factories built especially for this purpose. For these reasons it is easy to see that at the beginning of the 20th century neither gas nor electricity could be a comprehensive alternative to kerosene/paraffin. Even in highly industrialized countries there were stretches of land up to the middle of the 20th century that had not yet been developed for electricity.

The kerosene/paraffin lamp was completely free of such external dependencies. All that was needed to use them was kerosene/paraffin, which was available cheaply even in the smallest of villages in the remotest regions of the world. The lamp itself did not need a power cord or a gas pipe; it was freely movable, and due to its handy size it could be used anywhere. Once well filled with kerosene/paraffin, a kerosene/paraffin lamp would burn for several hours, even overnight if necessary. So today it does not surprise us that there was no area in human existence where some kerosene/paraffin lamp was not used.

Let me try to list many kerosene/paraffin lamps that were designed and built for a wide variety of purposes:

In the households:

Table lamps (simple lamps with and without a shade for table work)
Student lamps (with adjustable height both for burner and shade)
Parlour lamps (the luxurious type of table lamps, almost always with a shade)
Banquet lamps (the taller version of salon lamps; on elongated columns)
Floor lamps (very tall lamps with an extendable column)
Piano lamps (in Germany: with a side burner to illuminate the keyboard)
Wall lamps (attached to walls, with rotatable or fixed bracket)
Hanging lamps in living and dining rooms (mostly large lamps with adjustable height)
Hanging lamps with "Lyre" (with lyre-like metal frames to hold a drop-in font)
Hall lamps in hallways (the entire lamp is hidden in a glass shade)
Night lamps (with reduced or directed light)
Energy-saving lamps (with the smallest flame, for children's rooms)
Kitchen lamps (usually with a metal plate or a mirror to focus the light; without a shade)
Handle lamps (also finger lamps; small, easily transportable lamps with a handle)

Various household lamps with kerosene/paraffin burners (taken from various old lamp catalogues)
Top row, from left: Kitchen or wall lamps
Hand or handle lamps
Two more handle lamps with glass fonts
Hanging lamp with simple metal shade
Bottom row, from left: Night or economy lamps
The "Lunar" night lamp by Wild & Wessel
Wall lamp with fixed arm
Wall lamp with rotating arm

Outside the houses:

Garden lamps (windproof lamps for use in gardens)
Lanterns at house entrances (in a glass metal box)
House number lamps (metal box with the house number cut out)
Street lamps (in glass metal boxes, on the walls, on pillars, to hang)
Stall lanterns (simple glass box)
Cemetery lanterns (small boxes with red glasses; for placing on graves)
Church lamps (different versions with sacred ornamentation)
Storm lanterns (special type of garden lamps, wind and rainproof)
Carriage lanterns (to be attached to the side of horse-drawn carriages)
Bicycle lanterns (small lantern with light directed forward)
Car lanterns (the larger version of the bicycle lantern; for cars)
Railway lanterns (to be attached to the front of the locomotive or the rear of the wagons)
Road construction lanterns (usually with yellow glass; as a warning at construction sites)
Mine lamps (special lamps protected against gas explosion for mine work)

Special lamps:

Darkroom lamps (with chimneys made of deep red glass for photo work in darkrooms)
Medical lamps (for various medical examinations)
Sewing machine lamps (simple lamps with elongated arm for the burner)
Microscope lamps (to illuminate the observed subjects in microscopes)
Cobbler lamps (simple lamps with water-filled glass balloons in front of the flame)
Oven lamps (for internal lighting of ovens)
Lamps for magic lantern (for backlighting pictures in peep boxes)
Incubation chamber lamps (to ensure the prescribed heat)

Some lamps and lanterns outside the households (taken from the catalogue of Kretzschmar, Bösenberg & Co., Dresden, 1907).
Top row, from left: Hand lanterns
Police lanterns
Storm lanterns (wind and rain proof)
Stable lanterns
Bottom row, from left: Lantern for mounting on house walls outside
Street lantern for mounting on a lamppost
Carriage lanterns
Oven lamps

Other lamps and lanterns outside the households (taken from various old lamp catalogues).
Top row, from left: Shop window lantern
Workshop lamps 
Railway signal lamps
Darkroom lamps with ruby red glasses 
Bottom row, from left: Grave lanterns in cemeteries
Bicycle lamp 
Incubator chamber heating lamp
Egg testing lamp 

There are probably a few other lamps that I forgot here. And in addition to all these different lamps, there were also stoves with large burners and red glass chimneys for heating purposes, as well as stoves with a burner without a chimney but with a device for placing pots over the flame. There were also special, small attachments that were placed on top of the glass chimneys in larger, stable lamps, in order to put small vessels on them for heating purposes, because the heat that comes out of the top of the chimney is absolutely not negligible. A match or a thin piece of wood that is held in the opening of the chimney will burn after a few moments. If 5-6 larger lamps burn in a room in winter, you don't need extra heating! So the kerosene/paraffin lamp has been proven to be the lamp in the event of a power failure: You can use it to light up and warm up your room, and even to prepare hot water for a cup of tea or coffee...

I have to make it clear here, even before the chapter Lamps of the Collection, that I have only collected a few of the types of kerosene/paraffin lamps listed above. I'm only fascinated by the beautiful, sometimes even elegant, even magnificent lamps in domestic use. Most of my lamps are table, parlour and banquet lamps with a shade. There are also 10 hanging lamps, 4 piano lamps (German type), 3 large floor lamps and 6 student lamps in my collection. Some wall lamps, nursery lamps and kitchen lamps had to be sorted out of the collection as they were successively replaced with more valuable salon lamps. The other types of lamps, how interesting their technology may be, do not interest me, as they do not meet my requirements for technical and artistic aesthetics.