COST OP ELECTRIC LIGHT AND GAS.

Patea Mail, 30 June 1882, Page 3

COST OP ELECTRIC LIGHT AND GAS.

The Engineer draws a comparison between the cost of street lighting for a small town with gas and electricity. The plant required to make gas for, let us say 500 street lamps, which will suffice for say five miles of streets, cannot be less than £2,000. Each latbp will use five cubic feet per hour, or in all. 2,500 cubic feet,, and taking gas at 5s per 100 ft., the cost of lighting will, therefore, be 12s 6d per hour. But to this must? be ; added something for cleaning, lighting, and repairing the lamps, so that the whole cost will be considerably in excess of 12s lid per hour. But for 12s lid pec hour the electric arc gives us the light of 64,000 candles, while the gas gives us the light of 10,000 candles, it the best possible burners are used. Thus estimated, in terms of candle power, gas is actually 64 times dearer than the electric light. It may be argued, and with some force, that 500 street lamps will be, on the whole, better adapted to the wants of a small town than, thirty-two arc lights. Bat it does not appear to be necessary to use lamps of 2,000-candle power. At the Crystal Palace is shown a street lamp which ,appears to be just what is wanted. We have not' measured its intensity, but’ it is probably less than 1000-candle power. Sixty-four such lamps would, jf judiciously distributed, light up, a. small town very well indeed.