Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-05-02
GAs-LAMPS DOOMED.
Plans for Illuminating Cities.

| Plans for Illuminating Cities.
A company is forming in Philadelphi;
to buy out the interests of the Brush elec
trio light company, it is said, and intro
ducc more extensively and systematicall,
than has yet been done electricity for il
Eliminating purposes. A leading manu-
facturer is said to be one of the largest
holders of the stock of the new company
which will, at an early day, if the necessa
sary franchise be secured, light up con
siderable part of Chestnut street with elec
tricity. The Thompson Houston electric
light company, Professor Houston says,
contemplate doing the same thing. The
feasibility of illuminating the city, or al
least the principal thoroughfares with cleo
tricity is question which has been fire.
quently discussed since it has been demon
stratcd by private individuals that the
electric light can be used in large business
places with great saving of money.
! Mayor King, who is strongly in favor Of
using electricity for street lighting, said
that he was glad that an effort is making
in that direction and hoped that the elec-
trio light would soon be used to illuminate
the whole city.
The plan Of lighting from high towers
is pursued in Akron, O., and Wabash, Ind.
All COWcI dUOuI UWO AUuuIOu duu
fifty feet high, supporting six lamps, is
erected in some central square aud suf-
fees for mile around it. The intensity
of the light Of each lamp, at its best, is
equal to two thousand candles, and it is
possible, it has been said, to read a news
paper by it three-quarters of a mile dis
tant from the tower. The cost of sus-
tanning the light beyond the necessary out
I,, for onosnoc <rouSrotOrc 60 onH tho
cost of keeping them in operation, wuold
be about one and half cents per hour,
the cost of the carbon consumed.
The plan of lightning from posts, very
similar in appearance to the ordinary lamp
post, is, Mr.. Law said, more likely to
give satisfaction in large cities. It is now
in use in New York and is said to be
working quite we'll. For city with
blocks SO large as this two and perhaps
three lamps of the Brush patent would, he
said, be necessary to give sufficient light.
One would be placed at each corner and
one probably about the middle of the
block. One light would be equal to six
or seven burners and person could read q
newspaper at any point in the street. The
posts would be about twenty feet high and
the lamps connected with each other by
two wires. A third wire would be used if
houses also were to be supplied with light.
It is the intention of the company now
forming to introduce the Brush
light in Philadelphia to run the
wires under ground if practicable. If
the whole city were to be lighted with |
electricity it would be divided into about |
i've sections, each having a station from
which power would he suppliad. But if
Chestnut street only were to be lighted
me station, or at the most two, would be
sufficient. The electrical current, Mr.. Law
aid, has been carried ten miles, but it is
to have the power as pear
he light as practicable. Three Or four
nen would be able to attend to one station,
md one man could take care of fifty lamps
day, cleaning the globes and renewing
he carbon when necessary. The
arbon would cost about one and seven
enths of cent per hour, and that would
@ the whole cost of sustaining the light
eyond the first necessary outlay and the
ost of keeping the machines in operation
nd the wages of attendants. If a COM
any were to supply the light it would
barge about $4,000 month for a hun:
red lamps, burning from sunset to sun.
Sc. Lamplighters would Re dispensed
ith, as all the lamps could be lighted
nd extinguished in a moment from the