RELATIVE COST OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AND- GAS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1098, 11 July 1882, Page 4

RELATIVE COST OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AND- GAS.

The “ Engineer ” draw’s a comparison between the cost of street lighting for a small town with gas aud 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 lamp will use five cubic feet per hour, or in all 2,500 cubic feet, and taking gas at ss. per 1,000 feet, 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. per hour the electric arc gives us the light of 64,000 candles, while the gas gives us the light of 10,000 candles, if the best possible burners are used. Thus estimated, in terms of candle power, gas is actually 6'4 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. But 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 1,000-candle power. Sixty-four such lamps would, if judiciously distributed, light up a small town very well indeed.