Energy · 1792
Coal gas lighting
Gas distilled from coal lights streets and factories through iron pipes.
William Murdoch lit his house in Redruth with coal gas in 1792, and London's Gas Light and Coke Company began street lighting in 1812. Gas networks were the first piped energy utility, the template for later electricity and natural gas grids.
What it built on 1
What it led to 2
Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
Price of light in the UK Latest: 2.15 £ (2000) per million lumen-hours (2023) Source: Our World in Data
Efficacy of selected lighting devices Latest: 303 lumens per watt (2014) Source: Nordhaus 1996, Do Real-Output and Real-Wage Measures Capture Reality? The History of Lighting Suggests Not, Table 1.3; Semiconductor Today, 26 Mar 2014: Cree breaks 300 lm/W
Fossil fuel consumption Latest: 144k TWh (2025) Source: Our World in Data