In the Victorian Era, was there electricity?

Question

~~~I am building a dollhouse and I want it to be true Victorian. Did they have electricity in their homes during that era?

Answer 1

At the very end of the nineteenth century electricity was available the very wealthy areas of London, but it was so rare that it would be unwise to use it to create an authentic Victorian building. In that era gas was king.

Answer 2

Electricity In Victorian Times

Answer 3

I have a house built in 1893 as part of a development. My house is not Victorian but has some Victorian aspects. I have an original advertisement from the developer and it shows people could have their choice of gas or electric. Mine has gas but was converted some time in the past. Better to go with gas lights for your authentic dollhouse.

Answer 4

Not in wide use. If you are building a dollhause of Victorian Era, you should take in account that Victorian Era ends in 1901!!! So, at that period there was electricity already discovered, but it was'nt in wide use. Perhaps in England, as soon as England always was most developed industrial country. If you will do this, so I think it could be acceptable.

Answer 5

It depends on which part of the Victorian era you mean. It started in 1837 and finished in 1901, so there were many scientific developments throughout that time which transformed lighting in the homes.

Here is a good site to start:
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/lighting/lighting.htm

Edit: here's a piece from the above site:

"By Queen Victoria's death in January 1901, electric lighting was still in its infancy. Gas lighting was common in the cities and larger towns, supplemented by candles and oil lamps, but in smaller towns and villages and in the countryside lighting remained almost exclusively by candles and oil lamps. All the principal forms of lighting were thus in use at the same time, and it was not until after the First World War that electric lighting finally emerged as the predominant source of light in the home."

Answer 6

Depends a bit where you are. in the victorian era No welfare state Letters (several posts a day) Few Telephones (Ws Gilbert had one - to ring the Savoy Hotel) No television Homosexuality was illegal Child prostitution was rife Men (eg Charles Dickens) kept mistresses Huge families - no birth control High infant mortality Poor sanitiation - Sewers start to be built Education reforms begin but generally no free education Gas lighting Goods are transported by canals, then railways (now roads) Most families had servants Opium and other drugs freely available Gin Palaces were common In London - London particulars (fatal fogs/smog) No clean air act No factory acts No mental health treatment - mad people incarcerated in lunatic asylums Debtors were imprisoned criminals were transported or hanged Lots of churches built to save the poor Hospitals begin to be reformed by eg Florence Nightingale Huge increase in house building - some good many slums

Answer 7

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Victorian = Modern World Letters and telegraphs main modes communication = cell phones and e-mail main forms of communication Physical world seen as stable, scientific progress nearing its end = world seen as problematic and chancy, science has revealed how much we don't know Religion dying but still active part of most peoples' live = religion less integrated into daily life Sexual subject taboo = open discussion of sexuality Politics seen as defined by discrete nations = politics shifting set of alliances, with problems more regionally defined Electricity powered by rivers of growing importance = nuclear powered plants Candles = electric lights

Answer 8

Gas lights, most definitely, would be more authentic.

As an adolescent I lived in a few older homes in Philadelphia that had been built in the 1890's or thereabouts, and even though they had been long since converted to electricity, some of them still had the gas mantles in the walls.

Answer 9

No they usually had gas lights coming out of the walls of the old Victorian houses.

Answer 10

I believe they used gas lamps. a friend of mine in rochester inherited an old victorian house from her husband's great great aunt and they still have the gas buttons on the wall. really neat.