David Gledhill (3)

[from back cover of Gas Lighting]
David Gledhill is a chartered engineer trained in mechanical engineering, but he has spent most of the time since qualifying working in the gas industry. He served an apprenticeship with a Yorkshire engineering firm. In 1950 he joined the North Eastern Gas Board to work on gas manufacture and distribution, later specialising in the use of gas in non-domestic premises. He moved to Somerset in 1962 to be responsible for the gas used by industry there. His interest in lighting began in 1955 when he bought a Victorian oil lamp from a junk shop for half a crown simply because he thought it pretty. Since then he has made a study of the history of all forms of lighting. In 1970, when conversion from manufactured gas to natural gas took place, most remaining domestic gas lights were disconnected and often destroyed. This aroused his interest in gas lighting, and he began a collection of old gas light fittings, which feature in most of the photographs of this book.