I've read that during approximately the 1870s until the 1890s, a number of urban areas, including some in the UK, installed extremely bright arc lights on high masts over streets which were turned on during the evening. From what I've read, these produced a fairly loud buzzing sound and had a lifespan of just a few hours meaning that they would probably need to be replaced each day, but were far brighter than any of the modern lights that we have today (I've read that they were about 200x as bright). There are not a significant amount of actual photos showing them in operation.
This YouTube user uploaded a video demonstrating a homemade version of such a bulb:
From what I've seen though, many of the outdoor arc lamp setups from the 19th Century were actually rigs containing up to 10 or so of these lights, which may have created an even brighter scene than what you see in this video with just a single bulb.
How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
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How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
RJDG14
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Re: How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
Well the first thing to say is they were rarer than hens teeth. Hardly anywhere had electrical power and there was no standard so there AC Systems, DC systems at varying voltages etc. Arc lights were pretty much confined to theatres and other places of entertainment , the mechanism to keep an arc light was complex and as the electrodes burned away they gaps had to be maintained
When I was a child we still had gas lamps in the streets, we used to watch the lamplighter doing his rounds with his ladder,
The first house my parents bought, circa 1957, had gas lights, my dad and his brother wired up the house. More for the latest electronic wonder - television. A small flickering screen in glorious black and white.
When I was a child we still had gas lamps in the streets, we used to watch the lamplighter doing his rounds with his ladder,
The first house my parents bought, circa 1957, had gas lights, my dad and his brother wired up the house. More for the latest electronic wonder - television. A small flickering screen in glorious black and white.
Re: How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
Arc lights were popular in America at the turn of the last century.
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Re: How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
Electric arcs are pretty fearsome. I've made a very small one in my bedroom before, although very much trying to avoid photonic induction's propensity to carpet conflagration.
This isn't the scary one, but shows the setup. Microwave oven transformer, a long cable, and then the mains switch. In this run, the gap between the output wires was too large for an arc to form. However, once the transformer was turned off, the collapsing magnetic field generated a huge flyback voltage, probably on the order of 10,000 volts, which was enough to make the spark seen. Of course, the amount of energy is limited, so it's just a spark.
But bringing the wires closer together, to within 1 mm of each other? Then that's close enough for the 2000 volt output of the transformer to arc across.
This isn't the scary one, but shows the setup. Microwave oven transformer, a long cable, and then the mains switch. In this run, the gap between the output wires was too large for an arc to form. However, once the transformer was turned off, the collapsing magnetic field generated a huge flyback voltage, probably on the order of 10,000 volts, which was enough to make the spark seen. Of course, the amount of energy is limited, so it's just a spark.
But bringing the wires closer together, to within 1 mm of each other? Then that's close enough for the 2000 volt output of the transformer to arc across.
Re: How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
Modern arc lamps work quite differently to shorting out a microwave oven transformer - although the actual operation might be similar for short periods of time before the transformer fails.
They usually use quite low operating voltages. A resonant inductor-capacitor circuit acts as a high voltage arc generator which strikes the arc (ionising the gas) but the actual arc power is derived from quite a low voltage DC source. In a small household/office projector for instance, it's not uncommon for as low as 30V to be used to maintain the arc, at around 5-15 amps depending on the projector's output luminance. The most common of these is the xenon short arc lamp. A microcontroller or small electronic circuit monitors the arc voltage and can determine bulb wear and end of life; as the bulb is driven with a constant-power profile, towards the end of its life as the tip wears, the voltage will increase and the current will decrease (this is managed by the power supply controller). Many counterfeit bulbs have been installed in projectors which offer higher brightnesses, because the quartz glass of the bulb is replaced for a cheaper substitute. These bulbs are known to explode in use, and output large amounts of UV light which damages the DLP light engines.
Nonetheless, I doubt such historical arc lamps were anywhere near as powerful or bright as modern equivalents, like in Photon's video. It takes a lot of engineering to make a projector lamp last ~1000-2000 hours whilst maintaining high brightness and reasonable efficiency (for such a high power light source), and whilst the arc lamps suggested might have had their elements exchanged daily, they would have still been tremendously inefficient. It would have also been difficult to get the very high power required for the lamps to the lighting columns that such high luminance would have implied.
They usually use quite low operating voltages. A resonant inductor-capacitor circuit acts as a high voltage arc generator which strikes the arc (ionising the gas) but the actual arc power is derived from quite a low voltage DC source. In a small household/office projector for instance, it's not uncommon for as low as 30V to be used to maintain the arc, at around 5-15 amps depending on the projector's output luminance. The most common of these is the xenon short arc lamp. A microcontroller or small electronic circuit monitors the arc voltage and can determine bulb wear and end of life; as the bulb is driven with a constant-power profile, towards the end of its life as the tip wears, the voltage will increase and the current will decrease (this is managed by the power supply controller). Many counterfeit bulbs have been installed in projectors which offer higher brightnesses, because the quartz glass of the bulb is replaced for a cheaper substitute. These bulbs are known to explode in use, and output large amounts of UV light which damages the DLP light engines.
Nonetheless, I doubt such historical arc lamps were anywhere near as powerful or bright as modern equivalents, like in Photon's video. It takes a lot of engineering to make a projector lamp last ~1000-2000 hours whilst maintaining high brightness and reasonable efficiency (for such a high power light source), and whilst the arc lamps suggested might have had their elements exchanged daily, they would have still been tremendously inefficient. It would have also been difficult to get the very high power required for the lamps to the lighting columns that such high luminance would have implied.
Re: How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
I did some research into the process of street light electrification in Newcastle, which involved a few days with the minutes of the Street Lighting Sub-Committee minutes in the Tyne and Wear archives.
Arc Lighting wasn't the foucs of my research so I can't remember the full detail, but I seem to recall that a small number were installed experimentally about the city centre somewhere - Grainger Street comes to mind, but I don't have access to my notes. They were bright by the standards of the time, but repeatedly in the nineteenth century you see light that we'd call gloomy - eg gas lighting - described as very bright: by perception, it was compared to other technologies.
Either way, arc lighting was not the future and I don't think they lasted too long. Interestingly, while Newcastle proudly declares itself the first city in the world to have public electric lights, this was actually just a small trial too on Mosely Street, and by the 1890s the city had fallen behind most others in the extent and pace of its electrification. In 1897 they even sent a delegate to South Shields and (whisper it) Sunderland, to learn about the lighting that they had put in! Newcastle struggled due to its hilly topography, and the duopoly of two energy companies who spilt the city between them and then fixed prices at a high level, making electrification unaffordable for quite some time.
Arc Lighting wasn't the foucs of my research so I can't remember the full detail, but I seem to recall that a small number were installed experimentally about the city centre somewhere - Grainger Street comes to mind, but I don't have access to my notes. They were bright by the standards of the time, but repeatedly in the nineteenth century you see light that we'd call gloomy - eg gas lighting - described as very bright: by perception, it was compared to other technologies.
Either way, arc lighting was not the future and I don't think they lasted too long. Interestingly, while Newcastle proudly declares itself the first city in the world to have public electric lights, this was actually just a small trial too on Mosely Street, and by the 1890s the city had fallen behind most others in the extent and pace of its electrification. In 1897 they even sent a delegate to South Shields and (whisper it) Sunderland, to learn about the lighting that they had put in! Newcastle struggled due to its hilly topography, and the duopoly of two energy companies who spilt the city between them and then fixed prices at a high level, making electrification unaffordable for quite some time.
Re: How bright were arc streetlights from the late 19th Century?
There are some wonderful period images of early street lamps in Thornaby on Tees here.
https://rememberingthornaby.wordpress.c ... arousel-66
Mostly gas lamps as I recall although the last set were electrified and have been preserved in a local park.
The only place in Middlesbrough that had arc lamps was the Opera House which had its own gas engine to generate electricity in the basement until it was converted into a cinema in the 1920's.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/34436
https://northyorkshirehistory.blogspot. ... -sale.html
The only open air space that I know that had arc lamps was the long lost Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London which closed in the 1850s. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were not amused by the immorality displayed there .
https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/disco ... re-gardens
https://rememberingthornaby.wordpress.c ... arousel-66
Mostly gas lamps as I recall although the last set were electrified and have been preserved in a local park.
The only place in Middlesbrough that had arc lamps was the Opera House which had its own gas engine to generate electricity in the basement until it was converted into a cinema in the 1920's.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/34436
https://northyorkshirehistory.blogspot. ... -sale.html
The only open air space that I know that had arc lamps was the long lost Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London which closed in the 1850s. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were not amused by the immorality displayed there .
https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/disco ... re-gardens