Street lamps called “réverbères” in French were originally oil lamps invented in France in 1744 to light up public roads, replacing the old candle-lit lanterns. Running on gas atthe beginning of the 19th century, they were then electrified, an innovation which marked the end of the profession of “lamplighter”, a corporation of which Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince was surprised to meet a representative on a tiny planet: “There was just enoughroom to fit a streetlamp and a lamplighter. The little prince couldn't explain what use could be made, somewhere in the sky, on a planet without a house or a population, of a streetlamp and a lamplighter”. In Thailand, Kinnari (statues from the Temple of theEmerald Buddha) have been chosen to be on top of certain street lamps.