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Even today one can find Victorian style gas lamp shades in people's homes, or in lobbies of fancy hotels. The reason for their endurance even some hundred years after their formal replacement by electrical lighting is due to two factors. One, they still hold appeal as part of the trend of returning to Victorian era style. Two, they are just as functional for electrical bulbs as they were for gas flames.

Even today one can find Victorian style gas lamp shades in people's homes, or in lobbies of fancy hotels. The reason for their endurance even some hundred years after their formal replacement by electrical lighting is due to two factors. One, they still hold appeal as part of the trend of returning to Victorian era style. Two, they are just as functional for electrical bulbs as they were for gas flames.

The Victorian era glass shade spread during Queen Victoria's reign of Great Britain; however, the origins can be placed further back to the invention of the first controlled gas lighting device. In the late 18th century in Great Britain, an inventor named William Murdoch became the first man to try hooking up a gas supply with consistent flow rate to fuel a gas flame.

William Murdoch was employed by a company specializing in making steam engines for the mining industry. Because of his connection to coal mines, he was able to secure a supply of coal gas to do his experiments.

Murdoch's first successes were for his own house and for his steam engine company. He lit both with gas lamps of his own design, which constituted a fantastic sight for onlookers at the time. It so amazed a colleague Samuel Clegg that he embarked on a new venture to create a company centered around the gas lamp.

Murdoch's ventures were not the only ones. For example, the German Friedrich Winzer applied for exclusive patent protection on coal gas-fueled lamps in the early 1800s. Another man, Phillipe Lebon of France, set up gas powered lamps for light his home and home exterior. Soon after his experiments, the city of Paris took it upon itself to light the streets with gas power.

The impact of the first city-wide lights is hard to overstate. City-mandated lights meant that streets could become highly usable even in the evening hours, extending hours of commerce and travel. In addition, the streets became much less hospital to criminals who found it harder to commit crimes in the glare of the gas lamps.

The benefits of gas lighting were not limited to the streets. When installed indoors, factories found that they could extend the hours of their workers. Moreover, the decorating of homes with novel glass lamp shades meant the development of a new industry aimed at artistic and interior design.

Light shades for the homes of the Victorian era were mostly made of glass. The period saw the development of the canonical shade design, characterized by a spherical shape, a circular opening on the top for letting out excess hot air, and acid or other kinds of etching for surface aesthetics.