Progressive Electric Lighting of American Cities

Progress, Volume XII, Issue 12, 1 August 1917, Page 1039

Progressive Electric Lighting of American Cities

By STANLEY DAVID.

Street lighting in. America has made wonderful progress in the past year or two, due first to the great strides that have been made in the art of illumination with electricity, and secondly to a realization on the part of the public that a city, even though beautiful from the standpoint of parks, boulevards, and clean streets, is still far from attaining the desired perfection if poorly and in artistically lighted.

In past decades streets were lighted with little regard to beauty, since protection was the end sought, but to-day, protection is merely one of a number of considerations which have evolved naturally, by the rapid growth and extension of American cities. These considerations include the aesthetic as well as the economic advantages of such systems to which I will refer and which are typical of what is being done, not only in San Francisco and other Pacific coast cities, but in all the larger communities throughout the country. Sometimes a false economy shuts out entirely the possibility of an artistic installation, but this is only in rare cases, as city administrators are quick to realize the advertising features as well as the more common utilities of good street lighting.

A. splendid example of good city lighting, and a system which illustrates perfectly the combination

of usefulness and beauty, is to be found in Oakland, California. It is similar to that used in many other cities and can therefore be taken as typical of the general standard. One special feature of this installation is the ornamental iron post, spaced about every 150 feet and fed by underground conduits which do away with the unsightly appearance of numerous overhead wires. Another is the large sixteen inch globe, so treated as to diffuse the light

and give uniform illumination. This latter consideration is important as in good street lighting glare should be avoided, and an unprotected light source of high intensity if placed directly in the line of vision, produces a blinding effect which materially reduces the effectiveness of the lighting.

The system is modified in various parts of the city to suit conditions and to avoid unnecessary expense. Thus, the down-town business and theatre centres, and the main streets to and from the city are beautifully lighted with standards carrying three globes, while at the more important corners, and in the vicinity of prominent public buildings, etc., by standards carrying a shower of five globes each. This down-town and main thoroughfare installation consists of light standards placed directly opposite each other on the two sides of the street and the uniformity of appearance is ideal for orna-

mental purposes as well as providing a high, uniform intensity of light. In the residential and suburban districts but a single line on one side of the street is used, and in some cases, such as park lighting, but a single globe per standard. In Fig. 1 a neat combination of fire alarm box and street lamp is shown; and in Fig. 2, a typical corner with two five-globe standards. This latter shows the rather extravagant use of ornamental lighting to beautify the down-town section of Oakland. Inside each globe is a 7.5 ampere 250 c.p. Mazda incandescent bulb, while the iron standard measures 10 feet 10 inches,from the ground to the top of the globe and is provided with bolt holes inside for fastening to the concrete sidewalk. The system is operated on two circuits so that only onehalf the globes are illuminated after midnight.

The Exposition of 1915, however, was the forerunner of even more improved lighting systems and San Francisco was not slow in engaging Mr. D'Arcy Ryan, the noted electric lighting expert, who originated the wonderful lighting features of the Exposition, to design a new lighting system for her down-town sections.

This remarkable system was completed last September and has proven a wonderful success in practice. The principal areas to be lighted by the new system were Market Street (San Francisco's main thoroughfare), the chief business streets, and the streets surrounding public buildings and parks in XT, „ fmnn region. 1H inc uv;viu-iunu iCglOii. Three things arc conspicuous in this new installation, i.e. (1) The colour tone is of a golden glow instead of the somewhat hard white usually found in less modern systems. (2) The use of the arc light in groups upon one standard, instead of a single unit arc to a standard, as was the case in the deposed

system. (3) The rather remarkable height of the standards, placed so as to cause less glare and to give an admirable distribution of light, at the same time illuminating the facades of the buildings and causing them to stand out clear and bright for a height of about 45 feet from the pavement. The golden colour of the globes is restful and artistic and it has gained for Market Street the title of the “Path of Gold” in contrast to the “Great White Ways” of New York and other great Eastern cities. Each standard has three 6.6 ampere 1,500 c.p. inverted type luminous arc lamps, surrounded by the diffusing glassware globes. They are operated on two circuits so that only one lamp per standard operates after midnight. The standards arc 32 feet high and are surmounted by a highly ornamented top to carry the lights. The are spaced approximately every 110 feet for over 11 miles from the Ferry building up Market Street. The illustration, Fig. 3, shows one of the standards with the Ferry building in the back ground. The iron work of the standards is given a verde antique finish which is well suited to the golden color of the globes

and gives them an artistic appearance by day as well as by night. The illustration. Mg. 4, is a night picture of Market Street looking toward the Ferry and showing the system in operation. The writer had some difficulty in getting this picture as he had to locate in the middle of the street and the camera was constantly obscured by moving street cars and traffic. The first film was over-exposed and at the second attempt the camera was jarred by moving traffic and the result was one mass of light streaks. The final effort was successful with an exposure of four minutes. The streaks arc caused by the headlights of moving automobiles and street cars.

Although not coming directly under the head of street lighting, this article would not be complete without reference to the electric sign and to the flood lighting of buildings for advertising and artistic purposes. The former is not new but some remarkably ingenious signs are to be seen in every American city and -what with the fact that they are all the colors of the rainbow and constantly changing and flashing one can imagine the gay appearance, and the lure of the lighted cities by night.

San Francisco is typical, and to walk through the streets on any evening at any time before the theatre crowds have gone home one is almost dazzled by the innumerable signs. By day they are nothing but a combination of colored tin and bulbs, but at night when the dark background makes the lights stand out clearly on every hand and a silent, yet glittering appeal to the public is being made, one realizes the extent to which Americans use the electric current for advertising purposes, and to what expense they will go to create something new and novel in this field. Some of these signs stand out clearly in the picture of Market Street at night. The electric display outside the Strand theatre is a case in point.

Flood lighting, as it is called, is a scheme for covering a building or a signboard with beautiful white light from a concealed source. It was used extensively in the exterior lighting of the buildings

at the Exposition and has become very popular in America! The main feature is the manner in which it brings out the architectural beauty and details of buildings.

In signboard illumination the light source is hung out over the sign and the reflector mounted at such an angle that the light source is concealed from the eye, while the illumination is of such intensity as to cause the sign to stand out prominently without too much glare being reflected from the painted surface This type of advertising is very popular and is used over all big billboards for advertising theatres, various products, and the like. They are sometimes mounted high up on the walls of buildings or on roofs of low buildings, but generally are erected on vacant lots.

The advantage of the flood lighting of buildings is to give a satisfactory illumination without the expense of wiring and outlining the structure with electric lights as was previously the custom, and

without the harm to architectural features sometimes caused by the latter method. The method employed is by projectors situated on the roofs of other buildings, sometimes a considerable distance away. These projectors arc very powerful and are capable of covering a fair sized area of wall surface per unit, while a searchlight, which is similar to the projectors, gives a highly concentrated intensity of light an extremely narrow section. The illustration Fig. 5, is a night photo of a prominent building in Oakland, California, lighted by flood lighting projectors. In conclusion I would say that these elaborate systems, using as they do enormous quantities of electric power are made possible more or less by the utilizing of water power for generating cheap electrical power. When we compare New Zealand with California and note the water power possibilities of New Zealand comparing favorably with the latter country, which is very far advanced in hydroelectric power production, we can realize what an enormous aid to progress is lying latent in our streams and rivers.