Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str405a

Close up of image 'lnwrbns_405' platform 2 showing the row of ornate cast-iron lamps which was the LNWR's method of providing light New Street station. The ornate sets of lamps are thought to be lit using a technology akin to limelight which produced light by a combination of incandescence and candoluminescence. First used in public in the Covent Garden Theatre in London in 1837 it was also used in many theatres around the world and its use gave birth to the phrase 'in the limelight'. The lamps seen in image 'lnwrbns_str1860' used a type of mantle similar to that used for gas lighting today. The newer type of gas lighting provided a brighter light over a greater area at a much lower temperature thereby requiring less maintenance and fewer lamps to light the same area.

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