The AUR overprint, pictured here on SG 172 and SG 219, was used by the Welsbach Incandescent Gas Light Co. Ltd. Mantles and gas burners made by the company bore the AUR trademark.
Carl F. Auer von Welsbach (1858-1929)
The Welsbach mantle revolutionised gas lighting and the coal gas industry. Initially incandescent mantles were used only for street lighting. However, they soon made the first big contribution to industrialisation towards the end of the 19thcentury by providing daylight like illumination in factories and work shops. Incandescent mantles soon found a wider application in domestic lighting, camping lighting, railway signal lighting and navigation signal lighting for ships. Even with the great improvements provided by the Welsbach mantle, by 1910 gas lighting could no longer compete with electric lighting for economy, convenience and safety. The Welsbach Incandescent Gas light Co. Ltd. shortened its name to the Welsbach Light Co. in 1900 and over the following years diversified into the production of stoves, cookers and electric lamps.
Advertisement 1903