Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate this holiday.
I had to dig out some Christmas decorations, since I've packed away a lot of things for an upcoming apartment renovation. However, my Pigeon lamp is always out. I found it at a flea market in the mid-seventies in France.
Its inventor, Charles Pigeon, born in 1838, started out as a salesman at Le Bon Marché department store in Paris, where he became a close friend of Ernest Cognacq, who later on became the founder of the Samaritaine department store. Later, Pigeon became a dealer in cycle and other lamps, and invented the non-exploding (so far mine has not....) gas lamp in 1884, which made him famous and wealthy.
And its light still shines on.
