That's very true. Combo fixtures were offered in some of the catalogs I have from roughly the 1900 through 1920 timeframe, with their peak seeming to be in the late 19-oughts. I have been told this was because electricity was not the most reliable thing in the first couple of decades of its use.Gothichome wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 12:46 am If I may be allowed to expand on Colonial’s words. There were also gas/electric combo’s as well. In the early days of municipal electrical systems many were undependable, so if you had original gas lighting and you converted to this new fangled electricity you had both available. But still they were pretty plain for the most part, a tube with a gas valve pointing up often with a simple shade and a set of wires following the tube to power the down turned bulb, often with a shade as well.
SouthBend - your last pictures are exactly what a higher end turn-of-the-century combination fixture looked like. Looking at the bulb sockets on what would have originally been the electric lights (the ones pointed downward), I believe it to be an original.
