Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-08-04
STREET LIGHTING.
Gas and Electricity on Nearly Equal
 Footing.

Gas and Electricity on Nearly Equal
 Footing.
 Quality and prices aside, gas and electricity compete on more nearly equal terms in distributed street lighting than in most other lines of service. By distributed street lighting is meant that which must be done with comparatively large number of rather low candle power lamps, as where only small sum can be ey- pended mile of street. or where shade trees are so thick that good re- suits can be obtained only with lamps close together. These conditions make the use of arc lamps impracticable, and the comparison comes between gas and electric incandescent lamps.t
 The incandescent gas mantel has raised gas street lamps to q position of importance that the open bats wing flame long since lost. This return of prestige to the gas lamps Is due to the fact that the incandescent burner increases its Illuminating power to as much as five times that of an open flame. For the bats wing burner q fair result may be taken as fifteen candle power, with consumption of five cubic feet of gas an hour, or three candle power hours per cubic foot In the incandescent burner under good conditions it is practicable to get as much as fifteen candle power hours a cubic foot of gas consumed an hour.
 In street lighting, unlike interior H. lumlnation. the heating effects, vitia- ton of the air, and the fire risk of gas lamps do not weigh heavily against them. and the main factors to be considered are location, candle power and costs. Gas lamps. as or dinarily erected for street lighting, are at serious disadvantage as com pared with incandescent electric lamps of equal candle power. This disadvantage is due to the fact that the gas lamp is too near the ground; its lantern, holder and post cast a large shadow. and it lacks an effective reflector above it. In contrast with all this. the incandescent electric lamp may easily be. and usually is. a suit able height above the ground. has a wide reflector above It. and there are no opaque parts at the side of or be- low the incandescent filament to cast shadows.
 Another disadvantage of the gas compared with the electric street lamp. as ordinarily erected. where there is a row of trees on either side of the street. is thgt the gas lamp. being mounted at the top of straight post between the trees. throws gigan- tic shadows to long distances up and down the roadway. The electric lamp, being held out beyond the trees by a goose neck. throws its light to dis tance m and down the roadway, where it Is most needed. IT gas com panies can supply an inverted burner and mount it at the end of long goose neck. they will materially in- crease their power of competition in distributed street lighting
 Most important among the factors that determine the selection of gas or electric incandescent street lamps Is the cost per candle power of each. This conclusion is borne out by the fact that gas street lamps are largely used in cities of the first and second class. where gas Is cheap. while in stn;tll fAiit~ Hiu NpNU-. NAAfEt -dN N much higher. incandescent electric street lamps are much more generally used. For street lighting incandescent electric lamps rated at 2 candle power and consuming about seventy-five watts are very commonly employed With equally good location and mounting for each lamp. which Is con- trary to the facts as above noted about two cubic feet of good gas peT hour in the gas lamp will give an il- luninafinc effect equal to that of the 7s watt ineandesccnt lamp. IT the gas sells ai si rer thousand cubic feet the operation Of this lamp costs 02 per hour. To equal this cusf of ep- erating energy for the 75 watt incan- descent lamp muSt he sold at 2Gs cents per kilowaft hour. Where the price of gas is E. per thousand feet. as in many small places the clulva- lent price of electric energy msv he raised to 5.12 cents per kiIowaft hour. sud q large amount of inczndeScent electric street lighting Is done at not more than this fg1re.-EIectricai Re view
 Thought I. Was Empty
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