堅(jiān)守倫敦最后的煤氣路燈

Audie Cornish （Host）： In the United Kingdom， the company British Gas employs 30，000 workers. Five of them could be said to carry a metaphorical torch that has been burning for 200 years. They are the lamplighters， tending to gas lamps that still line the streets in some of Londons oldest neighborhoods and parks. NPRs Ari Shapiro joined them on their nightly rounds.

Ari Shapiro （Byline）： I wish I could tell you that these men were dressed in top hats and waistcoats. But as the sun went down around 4 oclock last night， Iain Bell and Garry Usher arrived wearing regular blue and gray jackets with the British Gas logo. They look like standard， 21st century utility workers.

Garry Usher： I was originally doing the central heating installation for British Gas.

Shapiro： About 15 years ago， Garry Usher found out he was being assigned to the lamplighters crew. He told his boss thats ridiculous. London doesnt use gas lamps anymore.

Usher： I thought he was taking the， the mickey， actually.

Shapiro： You thought he was totally…

Usher： I was…

Shapiro：…Fooling you？

Usher： Yeah， exactly， just trying to pawn me off onto another area.

Shapiro： But， in fact， London still has about 1，500 gas lamps. The group British Heritage decided to preserve them after almost all the others were replaced by electric lamps. These look almost exactly the same as when they were first installed two centuries ago， just a little taller to accommodate modern traffic. Usher leans a ladder up against a lamppost and opens the small glass door at the top of the lamp. Inside， a little ticking clock triggers the flame to go on and off at the right time each night. These clocks must be wound by hand.

Usher： I manually turn it round.

Shapiro： The flame jumps up and catches on little silk nets. Theyre covered with a substance called lime， which produces a bright white light. A couple centuries ago， Londons West End theaters realized how useful lime could be to illuminate a stage. Usher： They used to have a bit of this lime—quicklime—put a flame through it and it shown a really bright light across—on their star—and so the star was the person that was in the limelight. And thats where that comes from.

Shapiro： So we are literally standing in the limelight， steps from the river Thames， a stones throw from Big Ben.

（Soundbite of Big Ben）

Shapiro： Iain Bell is British Gas operations manager and a history buff. He describes what this area wouldve looked like before the lamps arrived.

Iain Bell： The streets wouldve been pitch-black. They wouldve been smoggy. Theyd be quite dangerous because the only light the public would have had would have been a candle.

Shapiro： If you wanted to walk to the local pub， you could hire a child know as a link boy to light your way with a torch.

Bell： Some of the link boys werent as nice as you would expect them to be. They actually would mock you， so they would take you down a dark lane and then youd be set upon and robbed.

Shapiro： So when streetlights arrived， everything changed. At first， people were afraid of the lamps—and rightfully so， says Bell. The gas pipes were poorly made from shabby materials.

Bell： Were talking wood. Were talking mud wrapped around it， so there was a lot of leaks. There was a lot of fires. There was a lot of explosions. So thats—the public were terrified. Shapiro： Even today， diggers often come across the remains of old wooden pipes. Today， the gas lamps that are still standing are protected by law. If one is knocked down， its replaced with an exact replica. They cast a calming， mellow light， maintained by these few remaining lamplighters—literal keepers of the flame.

（Soundbite of song， “Old Lamplighter”）

奧迪·科尼什（主持人）：在英國(guó)，英國(guó)燃?xì)夤居腥f雇員，其中有五位可以說接過了已經(jīng)燃燒200年的象征性的“火炬”。他們是燈夫，工作是管理那些仍然豎立在英國(guó)最古老的街區(qū)和公園的煤氣燈。美國(guó)國(guó)家公共廣播電臺(tái)的阿里·夏皮羅在他們夜間例行巡視時(shí)采訪了他們。

阿里·夏皮羅（撰稿人）：我希望我能告訴你們，這些人戴著禮帽、穿著馬甲。但是，昨晚大約4點(diǎn)，當(dāng)太陽(yáng)下山后，伊恩·貝爾和蓋瑞·亞瑟穿著常規(guī)的帶有英國(guó)燃?xì)夤緲?biāo)志的藍(lán)色和灰色夾克衫來到這里。他們看上去就是標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的、21世紀(jì)公用事業(yè)公司的工人。

蓋瑞·亞瑟：我一開始是在英國(guó)燃?xì)夤緩氖录泄┡O(shè)備的工作。

夏皮羅：大約15年前，蓋瑞·亞瑟發(fā)現(xiàn)他被選派到燈夫工作組。他告訴他的老板，那太荒謬了，（因?yàn)椋﹤惗夭辉儆妹簹鉄袅恕?/p>

亞瑟：實(shí)際上，我覺得他在戲弄我。

夏皮羅：你覺得他完全是……

亞瑟：我……

夏皮羅：……在和你開玩笑？

亞瑟：是的，就是那樣，想要把我調(diào)到另一個(gè)領(lǐng)域去。

夏皮羅：但是，事實(shí)上，倫敦仍然有大約1500盞煤氣燈。在其他煤氣燈幾乎都被電燈取代后，大不列顛遺產(chǎn)這一團(tuán)體決定保護(hù)它們，維持它們的舊模樣。它們看起來幾乎和兩個(gè)世紀(jì)以前剛剛安裝好的時(shí)候一模一樣，只是變得高了一些，為的是適應(yīng)現(xiàn)代交通的改變。亞瑟將梯子靠在燈桿上，爬上梯子，打開頂部的一小扇玻璃門。在那里面，一個(gè)小小的鬧鐘控制著燈火在每晚適當(dāng)?shù)臅r(shí)間點(diǎn)燃和熄滅。這些鐘必須手動(dòng)上發(fā)條。

亞瑟：我用手轉(zhuǎn)一圈。

夏皮羅：火焰往上竄，觸到薄絲網(wǎng)。絲網(wǎng)上覆有石灰，由此產(chǎn)生白色的亮光。幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以前，倫敦西區(qū)的戲院意識(shí)到石灰對(duì)于照亮舞臺(tái)有多重要。

亞瑟：他們以前只用一點(diǎn)這種石灰——生石灰——在它周圍點(diǎn)火，周圍就會(huì)顯出明亮的光投射到他們的明星上——所以明星成為眾人注目的焦點(diǎn)。那就是那個(gè)俗語(yǔ)（in the limelight）的出處。夏皮羅：所以我們其實(shí)站在石灰光下，距泰晤士河幾步之遙，離大本鐘也很近。

（大本鐘的鐘聲）

夏皮羅：伊恩·貝爾是英國(guó)燃?xì)夤镜倪\(yùn)營(yíng)經(jīng)理，是一位歷史愛好者。他給我們描述了這一地區(qū)在路燈安裝之前是什么模樣。

伊恩·貝爾：街道漆黑一片，煙霧彌漫，也相當(dāng)危險(xiǎn)，因?yàn)槿藗儞碛械奈ㄒ坏穆窡艨赡芫褪且恢灎T。

夏皮羅：如果你想要步行到本地的酒吧，你可以雇一個(gè)被稱為連線小子的小孩兒用火炬給你照亮去路。

貝爾：一些連線小子并不是你想象的那么友善。他們實(shí)際上可能會(huì)嘲笑你，帶你到黑暗的小巷里，然后襲擊你、打劫你。

夏皮羅：所以，當(dāng)路燈出現(xiàn)后，一切都變了。起初，人們害怕路燈——貝爾說，這也合常理。（因?yàn)椋┟簹夤苁怯昧淤|(zhì)材質(zhì)制成的。

貝爾：我們現(xiàn)在討論的煤氣管當(dāng)年是木質(zhì)的，外面被泥土包裹著。煤氣會(huì)經(jīng)常泄漏，會(huì)引發(fā)大火或爆炸，所以那就是人們感到恐慌的原因。

夏皮羅：甚至到現(xiàn)在，挖掘機(jī)經(jīng)常挖到這些舊的木質(zhì)管道的殘骸。如今，仍然豎立著的煤氣燈受到法律的保護(hù)。如果一盞煤氣燈被撞倒了，它會(huì)被一個(gè)復(fù)制品所替代。它們投放著寧?kù)o柔和的光，由這幾個(gè)燈夫（也就是守衛(wèi)火焰的人）維護(hù)著。

（歌曲《老燈夫》片段）