Electric Lighting

Advancements in technology also began to transform everyday life and the home. Finland’s first electric light was switched on in 1882 in Tampere, and soon enough incandescent light bulbs were illuminating homes and workplaces in Loimaa as well.

The traditional method of lighting was “päre”, a thin, flat splint of wood. It was burnt slowly, and would produce plenty of smoke. A typical farmhouse was dimly lit, smokey, smelly, and the air quality was poor. Candles and oil lamps were occasionally used, but for the common folk, they were too expensive to be used daily. In a typical farmhouse, something like 20,000 flat splints were burnt each year.

By the early 1900s, both the Ferraria ironworks and the local paper mill had their own power plants, which supplied electricity for industrial machinery and lighting needs. In 1910, Loimaan Sähkö Oy (Loimaa Electricity Company) was founded. It generated electricity using a 35-horsepower generator powered by an internal combustion engine. Wider electrification of the region, however, did not take place until after the First World War.

Caption: Power plant and mill in Tampere, 1895–1905.
Photographer: William Lomax.
Organization: Tampere Historical Museums
Collection: Vapriikki Image Archive.