Changing street lamp burner. 19th-century artwork of a man and his assistant changing a street lamp burner. The assistant is holding a jug used to fill the burner with its fuel, which was then ignited at dusk to produce a flame. The surrounding glass would diffuse and disperse the light to produce more even illumination. Street lamps used oil until the adoption of coal gas, first widely used in London following a demonstration in 1807. This 1805 artwork by William Henry Pyne (1769-1843) was published in 'The Costume of Great Britain' (London, 1808).