The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-05-09
MAKING A CITY BEAUTIFUL BY
MIGHT

Light is the one important factor in
making city attractive and beauti
full at night, and there is notable room
for improvement in this respect in
Keokuk. A few feeble lights strung
at long intervals try in vain to dispel
the darkness and leave the interven-
ing space unilluminated and forbid
ding as soon as the sun sinks to rest.
The best lighted city is always the
most attractive city; it is also the
best advertised city and usually one
of the most progressive cities. A
brilliantly lighted thoroughfare is al
ways crowded in the evening; when
the stores are open the merchants do
rushing business while the dark
streets are Infested with such charac-
tiers as detest light. A well-lighted
city is the safest city because it has
been proven time and again that light
is the best policeman. Crooks, high
waymen, robbers and other desperate
characters ply their nefarious craft
best in the subtle and Disgusting shad-
ows of night.
The first step towards identifying
city or town is to increase the
number and brilliancy of the street
lamps and to see that they are all
uniform in size and color. There are
many. different colors of street lamps,
varying from the orange-yellow of the
old incandescent lamps to the green
light of the mercury arc lamp. The
old type of open arc lamp gives a blue
light and the best luminous arc lamp
gives white light.
Keokuk is still using the antique
form Of arc and jncandescent lamps
which were installed ten and fifteen
years ago. True enough they are as
good as ever and will last for years,
but they never were very efficient
and beautiful, anyway, and since they
were bought the lamp situation has
improved almost beyond belief. To
day we can get three times the light
from incandescent lamps for the same
consumption of current than we could
a few years ago and light that is
white. like sunlight, and not sickly
yellow! Arc lamps have been I'M
proved during the past year or so
until they rival the very sun, giving
ten times the amount of candle-power
of the old ones and distributing the
light much more advantageously. 1t
is a distinct economy for any city or
town to get rid of such old lamps and
contract for the installation OF the
new. The old horse cars are just as
good today as they ever were, but
no one in Keokuk would think OF
maintaining horse car line in these
days of advanced electricity. A horse
car" system of street lighting is just
as much out of date.
Aside from the necessary street
lamps nearly all the important cities
of this country are installing ornamen-
tai systems of street lighting in the
business districts. In some cases
the city does this work, in others the
business men bear the entire burden
and now and then, they share the
cost. These ornamental lights are
usually incandesceats, either support
ed on handsome iron poles, from three
or five lamps to the pole, or strung
in graceful arches high above the
streets. AS soon as the local electric
railway and power company completes
the work of installing the additional
equipment of engines and generators
1t has ordered electric current will be
available for the purpose and keo-
kuk will proceed to establish and
maintain great white way in the
downtown business districts.
Electric signs play no small part in
the illumination and identification of
a city. 1t is here that the variously
colored lamps come into their own
and lend unrivaled harmony and beau
ty to the nightly illumination of a
city. The design and unique features
of such electric signs are limited only
by the imagination and they vary all
the way from tiny illuminated name
plate to great signs depicting all kinds
of figures many feet in size. Red,
green, yellow, white, orange, blue and
various tinted and shaded lamps are
used in illuminated sign work. Aside
from the immense advertising value
of these signs they play no small part
in Illuminating the city streets
Store window lighting is another
often neglected problem of making
the street attractive. Beyond doubt
the window is the best salesman, if
properly dressed and lighted, and this
light, flooding out into the street.
makes the business section doubly at.
tractive. Automatic switches turn
off these window lights at any desired
time when the people begin to leave
the streets for home.
RESERVE ASSOCIATION PLAN.
At the annual meeting of the Iowa