The lamps in 1880's heroine college were a Cleveland student lamp & a common paw lamp of the era.  They all burned kerosine.  Heroine college in those days would have smelled like kerosine & horse manure.  They were intended to be safer than previous kerosine lamps.  Kerosine lamps before then tended to explode.  Incandescent light was invented a year earlier, but Calif* wouldn't have electricity until after 1900.

In 1890, heroine hall still had kerosine lamps.

By 1898, they had acetylene lamps in College hall.  Acetylene lamps weren't mass produced until 1894.  They would have made acetylene on site by mixing calcium carbide with water.  The burners were twin burners.  Maybe they mixed more oxygen & carbonized less.