Blog Post
World's first city illuminated with kerosene lamps: Bucharest
Nov 11, 2018
The oil offered by the Mehedinteanu brothers for public illumination was colorless and with no smell, burning with a light flame with a constant intensity and shape, without smoke or ash.
BUCHAREST, Romania -- Back in 1857, Romania’s capital Bucharestwas the first city in the world that introduced gas lighting, being illuminated with 1,000 kerosene lamps, thus setting the world record for being the World's First City Illuminated With Kerosene Lamps
, according to the Academy Of World Records.
Romanian investor Teodor Mehedinteanu started the construction of the
world's first refinery equipped with modern facilities in Ploiesti.
He managed
to complete the project in 1857, when the kerosene factory went into
operation and was transferred to his brother, Marin Mehedinteanu.
The oil offered by the Mehedinteanu brothers for public illumination
had incontestable properties. It was colorless and with no smell,
burning with a light flame with a constant intensity and shape, without
smoke or ash.
These important qualities of the product, as well as the offer of RON
335 per year for each lantern, actually excluded any competition, the
other offers that proposed rape oil or walnut oil as fuel, bringing the
costs to RON 600 per year.
The Mehedinteanu brothers managed to obtain, by auction, the
concession for several years of the public lighting contracts in
Bucharest (1857) and Ploiesti (1860).
Once these lamps were implemented, a new craft appeared in Bucharest,
the lamplighter; the lamplighters had to solve a demanding work, since
they had to turn on and off the lights that were illuminating Bucharest
every day.
