• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

The Victorians Lit Farts To See At Night?

GNC

GNC

King-Sized Canary
Joined
Aug 25, 2001
Messages
33,634
In the most recent FT's Mythconceptions, someone writes in to ask if anyone else heard that the Victorians used sewer gas to light their gas lamps in the street (before electricity became the norm). I have never heard of this, and am pretty sure the writer-in is mistaken, but just in case: any truth to this?
 
GNC said:
In the most recent FT's Mythconceptions, someone writes in to ask if anyone else heard that the Victorians used sewer gas to light their gas lamps in the street (before electricity became the norm). I have never heard of this, and am pretty sure the writer-in is mistaken, but just in case: any truth to this?
Click to expand...
AFAIK, they used coal-gas (AKA town gas) - made from heating coal.
 
Yes! We had one at the corner of the street, where I grew up in Southport. My father told me it was a sewer-lamp and that was the reason it remained in use, when all the other gas-lamps were electrified. It stayed lit for many years.

I can't say when it was dimmed for the last time. For a long time after, the lantern remained. Now, I think, just the post remains - or did the last time I looked. For the record, the location was next to the former Belmont Street Railway Bridge - a beloved piece of infrastructure, which was demolished in the 1970s. :salute:

I see Wikipedia has a page on what are officially-termed Gas Destructor Lamps! :fire:



Oooh! At a slightly geeky tangent, I see that my home town lent its name to a type of gas-lamp lit by coal gas! :clap:
 
Last edited:
Berlin has an outdoors gas street lamp museum. Different styles from different regions all lit with gas.
 
I had, a long time ago, a brother in law who was both bold and brash.

The matter of fart flammability came up, and he, not being bashful, suggested that this theory be 'put to the test'.

So, he dropped his pants and while bent over someone applies a light to a particularly vigorous fart that he released.

It was a long and loud one; possibly one he had been saving for just such an occasion. And it did indeed burn with a yellow flame.

However he forgot that when a flame dies out it burns back to the source.

For weeks he had a rather strange walk and prefers not to discuss the matter.

INT21
 
It's what is referred to here as the "Dance of the Flaming Arse". Popular with Football club players.

A variation allows you to dance with a burning newspaper stuck in your butt cheeks.
 
Spike Milligan has a chapter in his memoirs, which touches on the power of this methane weapon against the Hun, more properly considered a diversion before combat.

Umpteen Youtube videos demonstrate the real science behind this very non-Fortean phenomenon. I may supply the URLs, when I next feel like perusing a lot of spotty teenage butts - though I normally leave that kind of thing to PE teachers!
Smiley-for-methane-fart-unfound. Substitute sea-monster! :mattack:
 
Last edited:
What do you know, I was sceptical I admit, but it's a genuine bit of Victorian kit! And that's almost a poem. Thanks for the replies.
 
I remember, as a child, my older brother warning me that there was a very small chance of a backdraft effect causing the gases still inside my digestive tract to ignite violently, thus explaining many cases of SHC. Consequently I never tried lighting my farts, and to be honest I probably still wouldn't - I mean, you could never be 100% sure, could you?
 
GNC said:
In the most recent FT's Mythconceptions, someone writes in to ask if anyone else heard that the Victorians used sewer gas to light their gas lamps in the street (before electricity became the norm). I have never heard of this, and am pretty sure the writer-in is mistaken, but just in case: any truth to this?
Click to expand...
FFS I took the title of this literally and was picturing:

Watson: I say old chap, it's frightfully dark out. Can't see a thing. We'll never catch Moriarty in this darkness.
Holmes: Never fear Watson, I anticipated this situation and took appropriate steps.
Watson: Well that's a relief. I assume you brought a lantern then?
Holmes: On the contrary Watson, a constant source of light would give away our position.
Watson: So what did you do?
Holmes: Do you remember that I insisted that we dine on a double helping of baked beans this evening at the Bear
and Barley Inn?
Watson: I do indeed. They have been plaguing me.
Holmes: Plaguing us both I am sure Watson, but I have with me some half dozen boxes of matches, and if we can control our flatulence in the presence of flame, this should afford a moment of high illumination for a brief moment that will allow us the visibility we need, while not betraying our position for more than a second or two.
Watson: Why Holmes, that's diabolically clever.
Holmes: You are assuming the plan will work Watson.
 
There's one working "sewer gas lamp" in London, on Carting Lane (or "Farting Lane") near the Savoy Hotel, and apparently more than 20 remaining in Sheffield.

I don't think they were used for lighting as their primary purpose - it was a way to efficiently dispose of methane escaping from sewers, and the lighting was just a handy byproduct of that. So they weren't necessarily "replaced" by electric lights.
 
I can't remember ever seeing one when I lived in Sheffield (although I wasn't looking for gas lamps).
 
It may be only vaguely germane, but one afternoon when i was trying to light a very short butt (it was a roach, to be perfectly honest), I erupted with a good-sized burp. To my astonishment, a blue flame six inches long shot forth from my mouth! It singed the fine hairs off my upper lip, too.

PS my 18th post in FT Forums is #18 in this thread! Coincidence? I think not!:bomb:
 
AlchoPwn said:
FFS I took the title of this literally and was picturing:

Watson: I say old chap, it's frightfully dark out. Can't see a thing. We'll never catch Moriarty in this darkness.
Holmes: Never fear Watson, I anticipated this situation and took appropriate steps.
Watson: Well that's a relief. I assume you brought a lantern then?
Holmes: On the contrary Watson, a constant source of light would give away our position.
Watson: So what did you do?
Holmes: Do you remember that I insisted that we dine on a double helping of baked beans this evening at the Bear
and Barley Inn?
Watson: I do indeed. They have been plaguing me.
Holmes: Plaguing us both I am sure Watson, but I have with me some half dozen boxes of matches, and if we can control our flatulence in the presence of flame, this should afford a moment of high illumination for a brief moment that will allow us the visibility we need, while not betraying our position for more than a second or two.
Watson: Why Holmes, that's diabolically clever.
Holmes: You are assuming the plan will work Watson.
Click to expand...

I think you meant Mori-farty.
"Sherlock Holmes and the Red-Arsed League"
 
His Extremely DeLux Self said:
It may be only vaguely germane, but one afternoon when i was trying to light a very short butt (it was a roach, to be perfectly honest), I erupted with a good-sized burp. To my astonishment, a blue flame six inches long shot forth from my mouth! It singed the fine hairs off my upper lip, too.

PS my 18th post in FT Forums is #18 in this thread! Coincidence? I think not!:bomb:
Click to expand...
Had you been drinking spirits?
 
You may be a dragon without realising it. That is the most obvious explanation!
 
This is weirdly fascinating. There's a great long list of the ones in Sheffield here
http://www.alancordwell.co.uk/Legacy/misc/webb.html
But what I want to know is, how would I know one of these lamps if I saw one? Or are gas lamps so stupidly rare that if I spot a gas-lit lamp, it's got to be a sewer gas lamp?

I think I may have answered my own question there.
 
Eponastill said:
... But what I want to know is, how would I know one of these lamps if I saw one? Or are gas lamps so stupidly rare that if I spot a gas-lit lamp, it's got to be a sewer gas lamp? ...
Click to expand...

The lamps designed to co-burn sewer gas were invented by Webb. As you can see in one of the photos on the webpage you cited, a Webb lamp's base displays its origin as "Webb Lamp Co."

Whether or not a functional Webb lamp is still rigged / connected so as to burn off sewer gases is a different question.
 
Thank you. I shall keep my eyes peeled.
 
I went to some art degree shows a few years go and saw a display all about the lamps being run from sewer gas. It may have been at Wrexham College. I'll look through my old photos and see if I can find any of it. I was fascinated at the time!
 
Bearing in mind that sewage processing works are using bio digesters to process human sewage into Methane to run their own generators it really isn't so surprising that the Victorians latched onto the idea.

Very clever, the Victorians. They never let Health and Safety get in the way of a experiment.

INT21
 
LOL , tabloid ( yellow journalism ) at it’s finest ,great thread title :atom:
 
escargot said:
I went to some art degree shows a few years go and saw a display all about the lamps being run from sewer gas. It may have been at Wrexham College. I'll look through my old photos and see if I can find any of it. I was fascinated at the time!
Click to expand...

Did you find anything? she asked hopefully
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top