Lighting in the old days

[philip in china]

Snooker in the late 19th century in India. They would not have had electric lighting so does anybody know how they used to illuminate the game?

[100-uper]

That's a really interesting question. I suppose it depends on when distribution systems were developed in India. Gas (from coal) began to be available in major cities like London from about 1840 when the industrial revolution was in full swing. I know that India had a coal mining industry during the 19th century but don't know whether they also had gas extraction and distribution. Perhaps someone can tell us? I suspect it may have been less viable as an economic project than it was in England.

Electric lighting became a practical alternative in England from around 1890, but it depends whether you were hooked up to the mains, and it took a long time to roll this out to the provinces. I would suspect that in India it would have been oil lamps for the greater part of the 19th century, but I'm not sure.

[philip in china]

See my PM.