Some were made by Tiffany in colored glass. To disguise the intense electric light, lampshades were used. In 1879, Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison independently developed-combining and perfecting existing elements deriving from the research of Humphry Davy, De Moleyn and Göbel-the incandescent filament electric light bulb. Lampshades were no longer used to direct the light but to attenuate it. Gas light had to be filtered by opal glass or light fabric shades. Theatre audiences regularly suffered from headaches and the sulphur and ammonia formed during combustion of the gas ruined furniture. The drawbacks of gas lighting were overheating of the air and extremely high oxygen consumption, making it necessary to ventilate the room or isolate the flame by separating the room where the combustion took place from the room being lit. The flame fed by the gas coming out of the nozzle was intense, uniform and adjustable, white and brilliant instead of the reddish or orange of oil lamps or candles.

But there were fears of explosion and toxicity. In the first decades of the 19th century, competing gas companies laid the first gas mains in major cities. A semi-spherical reflector above the flame projected the light downwards, while another reflector, slightly concave and near the flame, served to direct the light laterally.įriedrich Albert Winsor first had the idea of industrializing lighting by producing gas in a factory and distributing it through a pipeline. These were lanterns containing an oil lamp with a number of wicks. The first public oil lamps in Milan, financed by revenues from a lottery, date from 1785. These were oil lamps with reflectors which were hung above the center of streets. In 1763, the réverbères made their appearance. In the late 17th-century in Paris the first public lanterns made their appearance in the centre of the streets. In other cases, the shade material is deliberately decorative so that upon illumination it may emphasize a display of color and light emitting through the shade surface itself.Īdjustable tole (painted tin) candleshade in a Russian portrait, c. Some lamp shades are also lined with a hard-backed opaque lining, often white or gold, to reflect as much light as possible through the top and bottom of the shade while blocking light from emitting through the walls of the shade itself. A lamp shade also serves to 'shade' human eyes from the direct glare of the light bulbs used to illuminate the lamp. Beyond its practical purpose, significant emphasis is also usually given to decorative and aesthetic features.

The term can also apply to the glass hung under many designs of ceiling lamp.

Usually conical or cylindrical in shape, lampshades can be found on floor, desk, tabletop, or suspended lamps. Lampshades can be made out of a wide variety of materials like paper, glass, fabric or stone. Two modern electric lamps with lampshades.Ī lampshade is a fixture that covers the lightbulb on a lamp to diffuse the light it emits.

Antique lamp with painted screen shade