The terraced house we lived in,had no elecricity at all, it was lit by gas,and that was the front room only,the kitchen was lit by candles,when we went to bed,we put a small candle,in a jam-jar,and took that upstairs with us,( no health and safety to object,at that time ) the front room (parlour) was lit by twin gas points, they were situated on the wall mounted over the large Lancashire range ,it was the main feature of the room ,made of cast iron,the handle and the hinges,were polished till they resembled silver,the rest of it was a matt-black, this black was maintained,by a substance we called Zebo,or blacklead, a sort of polish, i believe was used exlusively on fireplaces, ?.and every weekend one of us kids was designated to do the task. The gas brackets,were at right angles to the wall  they had gas mantles fitted at the end, the mantles resemble a small egg-cup shaped dome,that was made of a fine gause like substance, if you touched it, it would disintagrate before your very eyes ,the bracket had two chains per bracket pull one chain, the gas would flow, you would then light the mantle with match or taper,being careful not to touch the mantle, or you would have to buy another from the corner shop, the other chain would be pulled to turn off the gas, when the room was lit,it gave off a flourescent green light,which took some getting used to,you also got used to the continuous " hiss",that was present as long as the gas was lit, below the brackets,and above the fire,was a cast iron shelf,we had two names for this shelf, one was the mantlepiece," for obvious reasons" and the other was the cornish, why ? i have no idea if anyone can throw any light on this i,d be glad to hear from you,  Those fireplaces are worth a small fortune today,  To be cont.....