"Moonlight Tower" Carbon-arc Lamps

[Retroit]

I found this in Silas Farmers The History of Detroit and Michigan, page 469:

"On July 3, 1883, the [common] council voted to light a portion of Woodward and Jefferson Avenues with twenty-four electric lights, to be supplied by the Brush Company. In June, 1884, a contract was made with the same company to light the entire city with electricity, and in July the company commenced the erection of seventy-two towers made of iron tubing, the towers to be from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high, the electric lights being placed at the top."



Some other street lighting tidbits:

• First street to be lit: Jefferson Ave. from Cass to Randolph in 1835. Forty lamps burning sperm oil [[from sperm whales). They only lasted 3 months.
• Second attempt at street lighting: 1851, this time using gas created from coal and naphtha, which is in turn derived from either coal or wood. The first "works" where this gas was produced was on "Woodbridge Street between 5th and 6th Streets" [[approximately where the Lodge crosses Fort Street currently). The second works were at the foot of 21st Street [[approximately where the Ambassador Bridge is currently). The third works was at Chene and Franklin [[between Jefferson and the river). I presume the first gas lights were erected in close proximity to these works. By 1881, nearly sixty miles of gas pipe for street lighting had been laid.
• Naphtha lamps were introduced in 1877.
• As of 1884, there were 1929 gas lamps and 1743 naphtha burners.

In other words, these Moonlights were the first electric streetlights.

[MikeM]

I found this in Silas Farmers The History of Detroit and Michigan, page 469:

"On July 3, 1883, the [common] council voted to light a portion of Woodward and Jefferson Avenues with twenty-four electric lights, to be supplied by the Brush Company. In June, 1884, a contract was made with the same company to light the entire city with electricity, and in July the company commenced the erection of seventy-two towers made of iron tubing, the towers to be from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high, the electric lights being placed at the top."

The Brush Electric Light Company held the contract for public street lighting [[about half of their business, the rest being industrial or commercial arc lighting) without competition until 1890. By then they had erected 142 towers, each approximately 200' tall and painted metallic red, fed by high-voltage overhead wires. That year a new company, the Detroilt Electric Light and Power Company, won a three-year contract from the city for street lighting. The Brush Company refused to allow the use of its towers to the new company, which then had to erect at least 100 more towers. In the meantime, citizens complained about the hazards and aesthetics of the overhead wiring, so an ordinance was passed prohibiting any new overhead wiring within a mile of the city center. The DELPC used underground wiring and wooden poles for its lighting in the city center, and towers away from the center. This might explain why you see two towers in close proximity, like the ones in Habitater's link, which appear to be slightly different designs.

During the term of the contract, while the Brush Company let its towers stand idle in expectation of bidding again for city service, they were aquired by the same company which controlled DELPC. This was the last straw in a long line of grievances the city had with utility companies and spurred the city to build its own power plant and provide street lighting itself, which it has done to this day.

I think the towers were last used for arc lighting around 1902 but stood for decades before they were eventually removed. Low voltage arc lighting survived in the city until 1946:

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...=S-VMC-X-48499 48499;quality=1;view=entry;subview=detail;cc=vmc;e ntryid=x-48499;viewid=48499;start=;resnum=2

[Retroit]

Wow, 242 towers?! Yeah, that'd be too many!

I see the difference between the two tower designs. That explains 6a & 6b. [[Grand River & Trumbull & MLK Jr. Blvd.)

Fixed Link:

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...tart=;resnum=2