Crossroads and Characters

54. THE DRAGON BY GAS-LIGHT.

What an astonishing change it must have been for village residents in the 19th century when the long dark winter evenings were suddenly relieved for the first time by gas-light. This scene was photographed at the south-east or top end of the Dragon, where the road begins a double bend to head up the hill towards Path of Condie and Glenfarg. Like several photos in this book, it shows a building which has since been replaced, an old weaver's cottage. Every night at dusk the lamplighter made his rounds, turning on each light manually with a carbide torch at the top of a pole. The pole also had a hook to open the valve to get at the fragile mantle of each lamp. Then between 10 and 10.30 p.m. he made the rounds again turning off the lamps. It wasn't until 1947 that the gas street illumination was replaced by electricity.