brown brothers city sidewalk vault light panel fragments, lenses and coal chute covers now available

shortly after acquiring a sizable amount of creosoted wood street pavers or blocks, several brown brothers vault light artifacts came through our front door last week. all of the documented artifacts were salvaged by a perceptive city contractor who knew i was vigorously seeking out any form of vault lighting (very little remains in chicago) that were being removed due to continuous improvements to the urban landscape (i.e., city sidewalks and streets).

unfortunately, most of these existing artifacts are simply discarded and/or destined for the scrapyard by city workers and contractors who have the privilege (perhaps unknowingly) of discovering them "in situ" shortly before or during demolition of outdated walkways. despite this painful reality of unnecessary disposal of these precious artifacts, there are always other workers who find vault lighting remnants that they set aside, either for themselves as a souvenir or to earn extra money when they stumble across someone like myself, who will readily buy these remarkable urban artifacts when they find their way to my store.

despite already having city sidewalk vault light panel fragments and a small selection of coal chute covers, i was thrilled to discover that the great majority of the glass "lenses" within the panels contained manufacturer markings embossed on the backside of each and every rondel with a completely different maker. in addition, the knob or "nub" configuration designed to protect the panel glass lenses where different than the sidewalk sections i obtained at an earlier date that were fabricated by vault light competitor richards and kelly. teasing out the subtle differences between the vault lighting the two companies fabricated is a rather intriguing process for me.

images of the coal chute covers, sidewalk panel fragments and individual embossed lenses were thoroughly documented after extensive cleaning. a group of images from the photoshoot of these amazing artifacts can be viewed in the gallery below.

the chicago based brown brother & company founded their vault light business in 1860. by 1873, the well-established company boasted a workforce of 85 men at their factory complex, located at clinton and jackson streets. a year after the great chicago fire, the brown brothers installed two miles of sidewalk and/or vault lights throughout the city.

the company later changed its name to the brown brothers mfg. company, where they became the ''sole manufacturers of hyatt's patent prismatic "cement" and "lead band" sidewalk lights and vault lights, floor lights, sky lights, and vessels' deck lights.''

the origins of illuminating large iron panels with the use of several solid glass rondels or "bullseye" lenses dates back to 1845, when new york city-based inventor thaddeus hyatt patented an illuminating "vault cover" for sealing off the openings above brick-lined building vaults that were located directly beneath city sidewalks.

the perforated iron panels containing several closely spaced lenses allowed natural light to illuminate the vaults below during the day. multiple protruding knobs, (arranged in different configurations over the years) were designed to protect the convex-shaped glass lenses from excessive wear and tear. the illuminating covers would become hugely successful in major cities across the country well into the 20th century.