be adopted in private homes, not gaining ground until the 1840s. Gas light made streets safer, allowed shops to stay open well after dark, and even improved literacy because of the brighter interiors gas facilitated. By 1823 there were some 40,000 gas street lamps, across 215 miles of streets. By 1880 there were one million gas street lamps in London, and the gas works were consuming 6.5 million tons of coal annually. The city became noteworthy for the brightness of its streets, shopfronts, and interiors at night compared to other European cities. The last precinct to resist gas lighting was Grosvenor Square, which did not install it until 1842. There were 12 gas companies in operation in London in the 1840s, with gas works and gas holders becoming an increasingly recognizable feature of the city. The largest of the gas works were those of the London Gas Company at Vauxhall, which piped gas as far away as Highgate and Hampstead, 7 miles from Vauxhall. The Metropolitan Gas Act 1860 granted monopolies to the various companies in allotted districts, intended to end the fierce competition for territory which had prevailed in the 1850s. This had the unintended effect of raising prices, as the companies exploited their newly secure monopolies. Parliamentary select committees were set up between 1866 and 1868 to look into the matter, which found that gas in London was more expensive and of lower quality than in other English cities. The committees recommended various improvements including price reductions, better regulation, and consolidation. These recommendations were enacted first in the city with the City of London Gas Act of 1868, and within a few years the provisions were expanded across most of London. By the end of the 1870s, there were just 6 gas companies in operation in London, compared to 13 in the 1860s. In the last decades of the 19th century, electric lighting was introduced sporadically, but was slow to supersede gas. In November and December 1848, two competing inventors (M. Le Mott and William Staite) gave demonstrations of their respective electric lamps to astonished crowds at the National Gallery, atop the Duke of York Column, and aboard a train departing from Paddington station. It would take another three decades for this novelty to be installed on any permanent basis, delayed by the expense of electricity and the lack of generating facilities. In 1879, electric arc lamps were