"Moonlight Tower" Carbon-arc Lamps

[Retroit]

More TOWER!

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...d=EB02C596.TIF

I love the caption: "Building under construction".

I wonder where this one was located? The building in the backgroud is where they made paper boxes.

[Retroit]

16. Griswold and Grand River. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...d=EB02D563.TIF

[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

[MikeM]

1b. Looks like there were 2 in front of the Old City Hall http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...id=DPA2218.TIF
Another view: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...d=EB02F783.TIF

See how the base of the two towers in front of city hall are different? The year of the second photo is 1895, after the DELPC was in business. I suspect one tower is Brush's and the other DELPC.

[MikeM]

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...5DEB02E519.TIF
This is a picture of the Post Office on the NW corner of Griswold and Larned in 1871. It appears to be the same building as in no. 12 except that all the buildings around it are different [[seems like they didn't waste much time back then). Both shots are looking North in the direction of City Hall. So that places the light tower on the same NW corner of Griswold and Larned. It looks then like Griswold and Congress for the photo I linked to refers to the further intersection in the photo.

I wonder of the towers would be noted on Sanborn maps of the period - I don't have any access to them.

I took a quick glance at some older Sanborns, but I don't think they are marked.

Your link, although it doesn't show arc lights [[too early), does show a string of gas or naptha lamps across the street, and a cloud of telegraph lines.

[MikeM]

i can't even imagine what a sight those towers would have been from little ol' Windsor in those amazing times.

Apparently the spectacle when approaching from a distance, especially in winter, was quite amazing. I imagine it would be similar to a rural ski resort on a winter night.

One of the main complaints of the bright glare of arc lighting was that it made the shadows even darker, creating an uncomfortable contrast, especially in residential areas where there were more trees.

[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

[MikeM]

The half-mile circle where overhead wires are prohibited, a result of the growth of telegraph and arc-lighting utilities in the late 19th century:

Attachment 6886

[Retroit]

I presume the overhead wires for the streetcars were exempt?

[MikeM]

Must have been. Apparently one of the hazards was having high-voltage arc lighting lines fall onto telegraph/telephone lines, strating fires or injuring people.

[MikeM]

Also found these restrictions, although they must date from a later period:

Attachment 6887

[Retroit]

So all these areas have underground wiring for streetlights? I never even realized that there weren't overhead wires.

[EastsideAl]

9. Miami Street and Fort [[?) Street http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?id=S-DPA1IC-X-DPA4371%5DDPA4371.TIF

That tower was actually at the intersection where Broadway [[formerly Miami), Gratiot, and Randolph all meet. The building under construction in the background is the still-standing Breitmeyer-Tobin Building.

Another view of the same tower from the opposite side of the intersection a couple of years later can be seen at this link, in front of another still-standing building. I believe that's Hudson's in the deep background.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...%5DDPA4263.TIF

[EastsideAl]

More TOWER!

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...d=EB02C596.TIF

I love the caption: "Building under construction".

I wonder where this one was located? The building in the backgroud is where they made paper boxes.

I believe this picture is at the corner of Randolph and Congress. The building in the background on the far left appears to be the still-standing Globe Tobacco building at the corner of E. Fort and Brush. A little research reveals that the other visible building back there on Brush was the Holliday Paper Box factory.

The "building under construction" title is in all likelihood a hilarious misreading of what's actually going on in the photo, but it certainly could have referred to the construction of the much grander building that would soon rise in the space being cleared here - the Wayne County Building that still graces that corner today. So this picture was taken sometime around 1897.

[MikeM]

So all these areas have underground wiring for streetlights? I never even realized that there weren't overhead wires.

It's from a Detroit Edison manual published in the early 1980s. In their case it applies to power lines. The city handles the street lighting and I assume the restriction applies to that as well as telephone and cable lines.

[Retroit]

It's from a Detroit Edison manual published in the early 1980s. In their case it applies to power lines. The city handles the street lighting and I assume the restriction applies to that as well as telephone and cable lines.

Hmmm...I guess I never really paid attention. [[Now, I'll be obsessed with looking for overhead wiring in addition to streetlights, traffic signals, brick roads, railroad tracks, etc...) Now that I think about it, the underground wiring for streetlights makes sense as it would have to be this way for thieves to steal wiring from the bases of streetlights.

I'm still kind of puzzled as to why people would find streetlight and telephone wires to be dangerous and unsightly, but would have no problem with streetcar webbing, which to me is very ugly. I wonder if they were specifically referring to those early telephone poles that had a gazillion wires strung from them. I'd imagine those were quite heavy and susceptible to breaking, especially in an ice storm.

[Ray1936]

This has turned into a classic thread. Thanks to all for your amazing input!

[EastsideAl]

This Shorpy view of the tower in front of City Hall also shows another one further up Michigan Ave. in the background. Looks like it's around Washington Blvd./Wayne.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/7658?size=_original

[EastsideAl]

Here is an interesting article from last year about the rise and decline of 'moonlight' light towers, with specific reference to the "shining example" of Detroit:
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/...the-1800s.html

In that article there is a link to this 1885 New York Times article that discusses the battle between electric and gas interests over street lighting in Detroit [[scroll about halfway down), and also gives information about how the towers were spaced and placed.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...6E9C94649FD7CF

[Retroit]

This Shorpy view of the tower in front of City Hall also shows another one further up Michigan Ave. in the background. Looks like it's around Washington Blvd./Wayne.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/7658?size=_original

It looks a bit further to me, maybe 1st Street? I'm counting at least 4 intersections [[Griswold, Shelby, Wayne/Washington, Cass)

And there is one even further out. Maybe Trumbull and Bagley [edit: more like Church St.]?

And yet another between City Hall and the steeple, maybe about Porter and 14th Street?

?

[EastsideAl]

On second look I think you're right. It is a couple of blocks further up Michigan than I stated. Good spot on that tower further out. I think you're about right as to location.

Here is a page from the City of Detroit Annual Report for 1914-15. It states that there were once 137 lighting towers in operation in Detroit, that 68 remained in operation as of that year, and that "in about two years the last tower will be taken down."
http://books.google.com/books?id=IKE...page&q&f=false

[Retroit]

No. 20 [[unless I lost count): Another one on Woodward http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...d=EB02F113.TIF
21. Another Woodward: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...d=EB02F111.TIF

[Retroit]

Another view of #7. Woodward and Jefferson: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...art=;resnum=97

[Brock7]

According to the description and confirmed by checking the names of businesses on Grand River in a 1895 city directory and checking a map from the period, the link for no. 14 shows Grander River where both 6th St. and Bagg[[now Temple) intersected. The corner is gone now because of the freeways, but the tower looks like it would have been on the SE corner of Grand River and 6th St., which is the same as the SE corner of Bagg[[Temple) and 6th St. or the SW corner of Grand River and Bagg St.

I find the mutt taking a dump in the middle of Grand River very touching.

[Retroit]

***TEST***

Here is a link to the locations on Bing Maps: http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/?or...7h3c9qgs33z5vz

Can someone tell me if this is working?