Lamplighters.
 

I'm fairly new here, so maybe this has been covered, but, I'm told that the original "tall bikes" were used to ride around cities and light gas burning lamps, as the bikes were tall, the rider could lean against the post and not have to dismount and climb a ladder to light the lamp, obviously the most efficient way to accomplish the task...

I have a couple of home made "lamp lighters", but, does anyone here have an "original" lamp lighter? I'm assuming the answer is no, they seem pretty rare....

https://www.bikeforums.net/singlespe...tall-bike.html

Awesomeness :thumb:

(And no, for once I don't want to try riding one)

That is a lovely idea, but seems improbable to me. The lamp lighter has to open the door, turn on the gas and light the mantles.
Tricky from the saddle! And you would expect to see some specific adaptations on the bike for such a specialised task.

Actual data: the pair outside my childhood home were lit every night by a man with a pole.

Wikipiedia does mention tal bikes used as a means to light lamps, maybe some lamps had the gas knob up high so the public couldn't tamper with it?

I did just get my goofy lamplighter finished off, and it even has some C&V on it!

The crank set is from a Raleigh, and the Heron does have an eye stamped on it so I believe this dates the crank to 1961 or earlier.

I used a "styria" 3 speed hub which is a, supposedly, higher quality Sturmey knock off, I just wanted it because it was 36 hole so I could lace it to an old MTB rim I had. I did have to join 2 cables together for the shifter and used a tandem brake cable for the rear.

and yes, this is the same bike I posted a little while back, both the upper wheels spin backwards when you ride forwards, in this first photo with the fresh paint job the chain that drives the rear wheel backwards is not installed, but the bike is now done, just waiting for spring, I did go ride it around a bit today at an empty (snow free!) parking lot in town...

https://i.postimg.cc/zvKL9YN7/5C88EA...8CF86EFC2A.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/ZKPBHmVK/11AD61...28F39D5416.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/zDgRLKhh/5B2419...72A2FAB8AD.jpg

Well, I don't know about the veracity of the OPs claims, but it seems obvious to me if on a tall bike, the lamplighter would simply put one hand on the lamp pole to steady himself and use the other hand to open the lamp door, turn the knob and light the lamp or whatever the process involves.

Probably half the stuff I do myself on or off a bike is done one-handed. And I often pause during a ride w/o putting foot to ground by just reaching out and putting my hand on some ready support. (Light pole, fence, parked car, etc.) Same technique would work just as well for a lamplighter 8 feet off the ground.

My guess would be that the bike listed as the original tall bike was more a one-of by an engineering type to make his job lighting lamps a little easier. I doubt that tall bikes to light lamps was anything close to the norm.

Tall bikes were popular a few years back among hip artists/craftsmen. Some of the "pilots" were/are welders or builders at Indy Fab, Seven etc. They' d plan "missions" where they'd pilot their "ships" from point A to point B -usually one watering hole to another. It was pretty cool to see a dozen or more "ships" slowly riding down the street.

Unless you were stuck behind them.
SCUL - Subspace Communication Headquarters

Anyway, when I saw the title of this thread, I immediately thought of
https://lamplighterbrewing.com/

I've read enough stories of lamp lighting workers using tall bikes that I believe them to be true. I used to live next to South Orange, New Jersey, which still has gas lights for most of the streets. Long ago, they did away with workers to light the lights and instead turned the gas down in the day. The last I heard was that they were looking into remote igniter circuits so they wouldn't need to burn gas in the day.