The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-05-24
STREET LIGHTING.
How was it Bone in Ore,en Thine.

CuG ulOSO uagnllClOub Sp6CboOA'@S
was supposed to be the general
lighting Of the streets of Paris. The
world was invited to witness the nov
ell scene. It was believed to be the
highest achievement of modern CIV
ihzation; neither the Greeks nor the
Romans seem to have thought OF the
wonderful invention. Yet the lights
of the great city consisted only Of
| dim lanterns and torches dispersed
at distant intervals, and compared
with the bright glare 0 modern gas
would have seemed only n dusky
gloom. Whether the Greeks and
Romans lighted their cities at night
is still in doubt It is probable that
Rome, except in the rare instances OF
festive iluminations, was left IN dark
ness. It's people, when they went
out at night, carried lanterns or
torches, or else wandered, in moon
less nights, exposed to robbers and
stumbling over obstacles. Antioch,
in the fourth century the splendid
capital of the East, seems to have
set the example of suspending lamps
through its principle streets or
around its public buildings. Con-
stantine ordered Constantinople to
be illuminated on every Easter-eve
with lamps and wax-candles. All
Egypt was lighted up with tapers
floating on vessels of oil at the least
of Isis; and Rome received Cicero,
after the flight of Catalina, with
display of lanterns and torches. Yet
the practice of lighting up a whole
city at night seems, in fact, a mod
ern invention.
Paris and London dispute the pri
Ority Of the useful custom. At the
opening of the sixteenth century,
when the streets of Paris were often
| infested with robbers and incenda-
ries, the inhabitants were ordered to
keep lights burning, alter nine in the
evening" before the windows of their
houses in 1858 vases filed with
pitch and other combustible matter
were kept blazing at intervals
through the streets. A short time
afterward lanterns were provided at
the public cost. They were at first
emily employed during the winter
months, but were soon kept constant
ly burning. Reverberating lamps
were next invented, and were usual
ly surrounded by throngs of curious
| Parisians. In 1777 the road between
Paris and Versailles, for nearly nine
miles in length, was lighted; and in
the present century the French me-
tropoIs has steadily improved its
street lamps, until the introduction
Of gas made the streets of Paris as
brilliant by night as by day. Its
! light was never quenched until, in a
recent humiliation, its glittering
boulevards and sparkling parks were
hidden in unwOnted gloom.
London claims to have lighted it's
streets with lanterns as early as l414
but the tradition seems to be doubt
full. About 1868 the citizens were
ordered to place lamp in front of
their houses every night during the
winter, but as late as 1886 the rule
was imperfectly obeyed; robbers fill
/ ed it's narrow streets, and life and
/ properly were never safe in dark
ness. Glass lamps were next intro
duced at the public expense; their
number rapidly increased, and to-
ward the close Of the last century the
citizens of London were accustomed
to boast of their magnificent system
of street lights, which far surpassed
! that Of Paris. The roads running
from the city for seven or eight
miles were lined with crystal lamps.
At the crossing of several of them
the effect was thought magnificent;
and what would now be dim and
dismal array Of smoking lights
seemed then one of the wonders of
the time Novelists and poets oele-
brated the nightly illumination of
the Overgrown capital. Vienna, Der
lin and other European cities follow
ed the example OF Paris or London,
and New York and Philadelphia
early adopted the custom. Rome
alone, still clinging to the usages of
of the Middle Ages, refused to light
its streets the Popes steadily OPP
posed the heretical invention, and
pre- erred darkness to light.
At length came a wonderful adj
vance. For three centuries civiliza-
ton had valued itself upon its lamps
or lanterns; it was now to shine in
novel brilliancy. The Chinese, who
seem to have originated without per-
! fecting most modern inventions, had
long been accustomed TO sink tubes
into beds of coal, and cary its natu-
raj gas into their houses, and even
their streets, for the purpose Of illu-
mination. They even used it for
manufactures and cooking. But they
had never discovered the art of
making gas. In 1892 Mr.. William
Murdoch first used gas for lighting
his offices and house in Redruth,
Cornwall. The Birmingham manu-
| tacturers at once adopted the inven-
ton. The unparalleled splendor of
the light attracted public attention
The peace Of 1902, transItory as n
sudden illumination, was celebrated
by the lighting of the factory of
Watts and Botlen at Birmingham
with a flame that seemed to rival the
brightness of the stars. The inven-
ton spread over the world. London,
ashamed OF its once boosted array of
endless lamps, now glittered with
hundreds Of miles of gas lights,
Paris again called the whole world to
witness its tasteful illumination.
The cities OF the New World lighted
up every corner of their busy streets.
Even Rome yielded to the useful in
vention; the anathemas of Gregory
were disregarded, and heretical gas
companies began to throw light up