Artificial lighting technology began to be developed tens of thousands of years ago and continues to be refined in the present day.
An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc.
A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light source – historically usually a candle, a wick in oil, or a thermoluminescent mesh, and often a battery-powered light in modern times – to make it easier to carry and hang up, and make it more reliable outdoors or in drafty interiors. Lanterns may also be used for signaling, as torches, or as general light-sources outdoors.
A Yablochkov candle is a type of electric carbon arc lamp, invented in 1876 by the Russian electrical engineer Pavel Yablochkov.
A chandelier is an ornamental lighting device, typically with spreading branched supports for multiple lights, designed to be hung from the ceiling. Chandeliers are often ornate, and they were originally designed to hold candles, but now incandescent light bulbs are commonly used, as well as fluorescent lamps and LEDs.
Pall Mall is a street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, Central London. It connects St James's Street to Trafalgar Square and is a section of the regional A4 road. The street's name is derived from pall-mall, a ball game played there during the 17th century, which in turn is derived from the Italian pallamaglio, literally "ball-mallet".
A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution became ubiquitous in developed countries in the 20th century, lights for urban streets followed, or sometimes led.
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, coal gas or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by the flame, generally by using special mixes of illuminating gas to increase brightness, or indirectly with other components such as the gas mantle or the limelight, with the gas primarily functioning to heat the mantle or the lime to incandescence.
The history of street lighting in the United States is closely linked to the urbanization of America. Artificial illumination has stimulated commercial activity at night, and has been tied to the country's economic development, including major innovations in transportation, particularly the growth in automobile use. In the two and a half centuries before LED lighting emerged as the new "gold standard", cities and towns across America relied on oil, coal gas, carbon arc, incandescent, and high-intensity gas discharge lamps for street lighting.
A gas holder or gasholder, also known as a gasometer, is a large container in which natural gas or town gas is stored near atmospheric pressure at ambient temperatures. The volume of the container follows the quantity of stored gas, with pressure coming from the weight of a movable cap. Typical volumes for large gas holders are about 50,000 cubic metres (1,800,000 cu ft), with 60-metre-diameter (200 ft) structures.
Charles Francis Brush was an American engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
A light fixture, light fitting, or luminaire is an electrical lighting device containing one or more light sources, such as lamps, and all the accessory components required for its operation to provide illumination to the environment. All light fixtures have a fixture body and one or more lamps. The lamps may be in sockets for easy replacement—or, in the case of some LED fixtures, hard-wired in place.
The Cincinnati Street Gas Lamps are a historic district in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Composed of more than 1,100 street lamps scattered throughout the city, the district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Frederick Albert Winsor, originally Friedrich Albrecht Winzer was a German inventor, one of the pioneers of gas lighting in the UK and France.
An LED street light or road light is an integrated light-emitting diode (LED) light fixture that is used for street lighting.
The Bartlett street lamp was an economical type of lighting first patented and manufactured by J. W. Bartlett at 569 Broadway in Manhattan in New York City, in 1872. Bartlett claimed his street lamps cost less than a quarter of the $25 The New York Times had reported a competitor claimed they cost. The Times responded that the New York City Parks Department said that they actually paid more than that for each lamp, including the post and frame, that they used in parks, streets, and elsewhere. The city of Troy, New York used the lamps beginning in 1872 to replace older models when they wore out.
Solar street lights are raised light sources which are powered by solar panels generally mounted on the lighting structure or integrated into the pole itself. The solar panels charge a rechargeable battery, which powers a fluorescent or LED lamp during the night.
Intelligent street lighting refers to public street lighting that adapts to movement by pedestrians, cyclists and cars in a smart city. Also called adaptive street lighting, it brightens when sensing activity and dims while not. This is different from traditional stationary illumination, and that which dims on a timer.
Street lighting in Stockholm was a private affair for many centuries. The first known decree regarded lighting in Sweden is from 1697 and concerned Riddarholmen in Stockholm. A royal decree regarding public street lighting was issued in 1749 and asked property owners to keep lanterns lit during the dark months from dusk to midnight, with bright moon nights as an exception. Stockholm was a dark city, especially at night when the street lanterns were extinguished. People avoided walking on the city streets during the nighttime. The public street lighting in Stockholm became a communal task when gas lanterns and later on electrical lamps were introduced during the mid 1800s. The city contributed 97 lanterns which were placed on the city's buildings, on public places, by docks, and bridges.
Early street lights in New Zealand were first installed in major cities in the 1860s with Christchurch recording having 152 gas lamps throughout the city. With the shift to electric lights cities moved away from gas lamps and on to the incandescent lamps with the towns of Wellington (1889) and Reefton (1888) becoming the first cities in the southern hemisphere to have electric street lights. Other towns soon followed suit with the town of Brightwater adding five and Richmond adding ten street lights in 1911. During the mid 20th century a move towards fluorescent lamps was taken up. Pressing into the 21st century New Zealand likemuch of the industrialised world has been expanding the installation of LED lights, and have seen large savings. In modern times communities in New Zealand have turned their street lights off for multiple reasons including to save energy and to help protect local wildlife in particular the Westland petrel as well as reduce light pollution.
