Over 300 years ago In the year 1697 a law was passed in New York to create street lighting. The law said
"Every seven householders shall unite to pay the expense of burning a candle in a lantern suspended on a pole from the window of every seventh house on nights when there is no moon".
Many decades later in the year 1762, public street lamp posts of wood were erected in New York. These posts held lamps which burned oil. Each morning the lamp lighters went about carrying a small ladder, a can of oil, scissors, and a supply of wicks. Mounting the ladder, the lamplighter blew out the lamp and trimmed it for the next night's service. At dusk he made his rounds again and lighted the lamps by means of a torch.
Oil lamps were used in New York for the next fifty years, up to the year 1823 when gas lighting was first introduced.
These facts came from a school book published in 1919 called Young American Readers
You can read more about the old days in the book
