Thursday 14 January 2021

"Gas is cheaper than electricity" (1909)

 These Helsinki ladies, photographed in 1909, were not not suffragettes - after all, already in 1906 universal and equal suffrage had been achieved in Finland. No, the ladies were "demonstrating" on behalf of the Helsinki city gasworks, which wanted people to know that "Gas is cheaper than electricity". (The text is in Swedish, as this ad targeted the Swedish speaking population in Helsinki). The use of gas in kitchen stowes became more widespread in the early 1910s.

My restoration and colorization of Artur Fastin´s photo in the Finnish Heritage Agency archive.