CHAPTER XIII.
LIGHTING STREETS.
At the present moment the question of lighting streets by electricity is gaining so much attention, that it must necessarily be first considered in connection with the subject of lighting streets: but to enter fully into all the details and comparative merits of electricity and gas as applied to street lighting would entail more space than can be afforded in this work. It may however be of some use, even under the present state of uncertainty, if I attempt to condense as much information upon this necessary part of a surveyor’s duty into as small a compass as possible. Nor must it be forgotten that electric lighting will not easily be adapted in old cities and towns, where, in addition to the main streets being narrow and crooked, there are few large open spaces suitable for intense lights, and there are numerous small courts and alleys which require lighting, and this for a long time to come will probably be effected with gas.[112]
Section 161 of the Public Health Act 1875 enacts as follows:
“Any urban authority may contract with any person for the supply of gas or other means of lighting the streets, markets, and public buildings in their district, and may provide such lamps, lamp-posts and other materials and apparatus as they may think necessary for lighting the same. . . .” (38 and 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 161.)
I do not propose to entertain the question of lighting where the gas works are the property of the corporation, but only to give information that may be of use where a contract has to be entered into between the corporation and a company. These contracts are based nearly always upon the length of time at which the public lamps are to be kept lighted, and may be summarised as follows:
(1.) The public lamps are lighted from sunset to sunrise every night throughout the year; this averages 12 hours per diem, or about 4000 hours per annum.
(2.) The public lamps are not lighted on the nights of full moon, nor for two or three nights before and after this period; the rest of the year they are lighted at sunset.
(3.) Similar to the preceding, except that the public lamps are not lighted during the five nights of full moon, the night after they are lighted for one hour and extinguished on the rising of the moon; this lighting increases from night to night about three quarters of an hour until the moon has entirely disappeared, when the lamps are lighted during the whole of the night for five consecutive nights. Then again on the appearance of the new moon the lamps are extinguished the first night for about an hour that the moon is visible, and this extension increases nightly about three quarters of an hour according as the moon appears until the period of full moon, the intention being to profit by every hour of the moon’s light.
By this arrangement the lighting is about 2000 hours per annum, instead of 4000 hours, when it is continued throughout the night during the whole of the year.
(4.) Sometimes, in addition to the foregoing, the lamps are not lighted at all during the summer months.