When were electric lamps used for street lighting?
The first ELECTRIC LAMPS USED FOR STREET LIGHTING were arc lamps installed experimentally in le quai Conti and la place da la Concorde, Paris, by Messrs Deleuil et Archereau in 1841. An arc-lamp was erected on the north tower of Hungerford Bride by W.E. Staite in 1849 and burned for 3 hr nightly over a two-week experimental period in UK.
The first STREET LIT PERMANENTLY BY ELECTRICITY was la rue Imperiale in Lyons, where arc-lamps were installed by-Messrs Lacassagne et Thiers in 1857. Little further progress appears to have been made in France until l’avenue de l’Opera, Paris, was electrically lit in June 1878.
In Britain the Societe Generale d’Electricite de Paris received a contract from the Metropolitan Board of Works to light the Victoria Embankment in 1878, and 20 Jablochk off Candles were switched on for the first time on 13 December of that year. The first TOWN IN WHICH ELECTRIC LIGHTING ENTIRELY was Wabash, Ind., which was illuminated by four 4,000-candle-power Brush arc-lights, each suspended 50 ft above the business quarter, on 31 March 1880.
The first INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC STREET LAMPS were installed at Newcastle upon Tyne by Messrs Mawson & Swan in 1881. The first five lamp standards, three in Mosley Street, one in Pilgrim Street and another in Grey Street, were illuminated on 11 April. The Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported enthusiastically, nothing that ‘the shadows generally lurking around the ordinary street lamp-posts were palpably absent’.
