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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.
Many lamps have light-sensitive or astro clocks that activate the lamp automatically when needed, at times when there is reduced ambient light compared to daytime, such as at dusk, dawn, or under exceptional cloud cover. This function in older lighting systems could be performed with the aid of a solar dial.
In the words of Edwin Heathcote, "Romans illuminated the streets with oil lamps, and cities from Baghdad to Cordoba were similarly lit when most of Europe was living in what it is now rather unfashionable to call the Dark Ages but which were, from the point of view of street lighting, exactly that."
So-called "" escorted people from one place to another through the murky, winding streets of medieval towns.
Before incandescence lamps, candle lighting was employed in cities. The earliest lamps required that a lamplighter tour the town at dusk, lighting each of the lamps. According to some sources, illumination was ordered in London in 1417 by Sir Henry Barton, Mayor of London, though there is no firm evidence of this.Roskell, J. S. and Clark, L. and Rawcliffe, C. (editors) BARTON, Henry (d.1435), of London. – History of Parliament Online , The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421. . 1993.
Public street lighting was first developed in the 16th century, and accelerated following the invention of lanterns with glass windows by Edmund Heming in London and Jan van der Heyden in Amsterdam,Ekirch, A. Roger, 1950At day's close : night in times past / A. Roger Ekirch.—Ist ed. p.72 ISBN 0-393-05089-0, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 Www.wwnorton.com which greatly improved the quantity of light. In 1588 the Parisian Parliament decreed that a torch be installed and lit at each intersection, and in 1594 the police changed this to lanterns. Still, in the mid 17th century it was a common practice for travelers to hire a lantern-bearer if they had to move at night through the dark, winding streets. King Louis XIV authorized sweeping reforms in Paris in 1667, which included the installation and maintenance of lights on streets and at intersections, as well as stiff penalties for vandalizing or stealing the fixtures. Paris had more than 2,700 streetlights by the end of the 17th century, and twice as many by 1730. (2025). 9780300223880, Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300223880 Under this system, streets were lit with lanterns suspended apart on a cord over the middle of the street at a height of ; as an English visitor enthused in 1698, 'The streets are lit all winter and even during the full moon!' In London, public street lighting was implemented around the end of the 17th century; a Diary wrote in 1712 that 'All the way, quite through Hyde Park to the Queen's Palace at Kensington, lanterns were placed for illuminating the roads on dark nights.'
A much-improved oil lantern, called a réverbère, was introduced in 1745 and improved in subsequent years. The light shed from these réverbères was considerably brighter, enough that some people complained of glare. These lamps were attached to the tops of lampposts; by 1817, there were 4,694 lamps on the Paris streets. During the French Revolution (1789–1799), the revolutionaries found that the lampposts were a convenient place to hang aristocrats and other opponents.
The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London on 4 June 1807 by Frederick Albert Winsor.'Pall Mall, South Side, Past Buildings: Nos 93–95 Pall Mall, F.A. Winsor and the development of gas lighting', in Survey of London: Volumes 29 and 30, St James Westminster, Part 1, ed. F H W Sheppard (London, 1960), pp. 352–354. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols29-30/pt1/pp352-354 accessed.
In 1811, engineer Samuel Clegg designed and built what is now considered the oldest extant gasworks in the world. Gas was used to light the worsted mill in the village of Dolphinholme in North Lancashire. The remains of the works, including a chimney and gas plant, have been put on the National Heritage List for England. Clegg's installation saved the building's owners the cost of up to 1,500 candles every night. It also lit the mill owner's house and the street of millworkers' houses in Dolphinholme.
In 1812, Parliament granted a charter to the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company, and the first gas company in the world came into being. Less than two years later, on 31 December 1813, the Westminster Bridge was lit by gas.
Following this success, gas lighting spread outside London, both within Britain and abroad. The first place outside London in England to have gas lighting, was Preston, Lancashire in 1816, where Joseph Dunn's Preston Gaslight Company introduced a new, brighter gas lighting. Another early adopter was the city of Baltimore, where the gaslights were first demonstrated at Rembrandt Peale's Museum in 1816, and Peale's Gas Light Company of Baltimore provided the first gas streetlights in the United States. In the 1860s, streetlights were started in the Southern Hemisphere in New Zealand.
In Paris, public street lighting was first installed on a covered shopping street, the Passage des Panoramas, in 1817, private interior gas lighting having been previously demonstrated in a house on the rue Saint-Dominique seventeen years prior. The first gas lamps on the main streets of Paris appeared in January 1829 on the place du Carrousel and the Rue de Rivoli, then on the rue de la Paix, place Vendôme, and rue de Castiglione. By 1857, the Grands Boulevards were all lit with gas; a Parisian writer enthused in August 1857: "That which most enchants the Parisians is the new lighting by gas of the boulevards...From the church of the Madeleine all the way to rue Montmartre, these two rows of lamps, shining with a clarity white and pure, have a marvelous effect." The gaslights installed on the boulevards and city monuments in the 19th century gave the city the nickname "The City of Light."
Kerosene streetlamps were invented by Polish pharmacist Ignacy Łukasiewicz in the city of Lemberg (Austrian Empire), in 1853. His kerosene lamps were later widely used in Bucharest, Paris, and other European cities. He went on to open the world's first mine in 1854 and the world's first kerosene refinery in 1856 in Jasło, Poland.
Oil-gas appeared in the field as a rival of coal-gas. In 1815, John Taylor patented an apparatus for the decomposition of "oil" and other animal substances. Public attention was attracted to "oil-gas" by the display of the patent apparatus at Apothecary's Hall, by Taylor & Martineau.
During the period of gas lighting, lights were not generally left on for the entire night, nor were they necessarily turned on during periods of moonlight. In an article about the development of streetlighting in three industrial cities, Mark Bouman reported that Max Greve, the mayor of Bochum, Germany, "fought all his life against 'absurd modernism,' which would have had the lights on even when the moon shone."
On 30 May 1878, the first electric streetlights in Paris were installed on the avenue de l'Opera and the Place de l'Étoile, around the Arc de Triomphe, to celebrate the opening of the Paris Universal Exposition. In 1881, to coincide with the Paris International Exposition of Electricity, streetlights were installed on the major boulevards.
The first streets in London lit with the electrical arc lamp were by the Holborn Viaduct and the Thames Embankment in 1878. More than 4,000 were in use by 1881, though by then an improved differential arc lamp had been developed by Friedrich von Hefner-Alteneck of Siemens & Halske. The United States was quick in adopting arc lighting, and by 1890 over 130,000 were in operation in the US, commonly installed in exceptionally tall .
Arc lights had two major disadvantages. First, they emit an intense and harsh light which, although useful at industrial sites like dockyards, was discomforting in ordinary city streets. Second, they are maintenance-intensive, as carbon electrodes burn away swiftly. With the development of cheap, reliable and bright incandescent light bulbs at the end of the 19th century, arc lights passed out of use for street lighting, but remained in industrial use longer.
Kimberley, Cape Colony (modern South Africa), was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and in Africa to have electric streetlights – with 16 first lit on 2 September 1882. The system was only the second in the world, after that of Philadelphia, to be powered municipally.
In Central America, San Jose, Costa Rica, lit 25 lamps powered by a hydroelectric plant on 9 August 1884.
Nuremberg was the first city in German Empire to have electric public lighting on 7 June 1882, followed by Berlin on 20 September 1882 (Potsdamer Platz only).
Timișoara, Romania was the first city in the România to have electric public lighting, on 12 November 1884; 731 lamps were used.
On 9 December 1882, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia was introduced to electricity by having a demonstration of 8 arc lights, erected along Queen Street Mall. The power to supply these arc lights was taken from a 10 hp Crompton DC generator driven by a Robey steam engine in a small foundry in Adelaide Street and occupied by J. W. Sutton and Co. In 1884, Walhalla, Victoria, had two lamps installed on the main street by the Long Tunnel (Gold) Mining Company. In 1886, the isolated mining town of Waratah in Tasmania was the first to have an extensive system of electrically powered street lighting installed. In 1888, the New South Wales town of Tamworth installed a large system illuminating a significant portion of the city, with over 13 km of streets lit by 52 incandescent lights and 3 arc lights. Powered by a municipal power company, this system gave Tamworth the title of "First City of Light" in Australia.
On 10 December 1885, Härnösand became the first town in Sweden with electric street lighting, following the Gådeå power station being taken into use.
To avoid having the entire system go dark if a single lamp burned out, each streetlamp was equipped with a device that ensured that the circuit would remain intact. Early series streetlights were equipped with isolation transformers. that would allow current to pass across the transformer whether the bulb worked or not.
Later, the film cutout was invented. This was a small disk of insulating film that separated two contacts connected to the two wires leading to the lamp. If the lamp failed (an open circuit), the current through the string became zero, causing the voltage of the circuit (thousands of volts) to be imposed across the insulating film, antifuse it (see Ohm's law). In this way, the failed lamp was bypassed and power was restored to the rest of the district. The streetlight circuit contained an automatic current regulator, preventing the current from increasing as lamps burned out, preserving the life of the remaining lamps. When the failed lamp was replaced, a new piece of film was installed, once again separating the contacts in the cutout. This system was recognizable by the large porcelain insulator separating the lamp and reflector from the mounting arm. This was necessary because the two contacts in the lamp's base may have operated at several thousand volts above ground.
Two national standards now allow for variation in illuminance when using lamps of different spectra. In Australia, HPS lamp performance needs to be reduced by a minimum value of 75%. In the UK, illuminances are reduced with higher values S/P ratio.Fotios S and Goodman T. Proposed UK Guidance for Lighting in Residential Roads. Lighting Research & Technology, 2012; 44(1); 69–83Institution of Lighting Professionals (ILP). Professional Lighting Guide PLG03:2012. Lighting for Subsidiary Roads: Using white light sources to balance energy efficiency and visual amenity. Rugby; ILP Newer street lighting technologies, such as LED or induction lights, can be designed to emit a white light that provides high levels of scotopic lumens. It is a commonly accepted practice to justify and implement a lower luminance level for roadway lighting based on increased scotopic lumens provided by white light. However, this practice fails to provide the context needed to apply laboratory-based visual performance testing to the real world. Critical factors such as visual adaptation are left out of this practice of lowering luminance levels, leading to reduced visual performance. Additionally, there have been no formal specifications written around Photopic/Scotopic adjustments for different types of light sources, causing many municipalities and street departments to hold back on implementation of these new technologies until the standards are updated. Eastbourne in East Sussex, UK is currently undergoing a project to see 6000 of its streetlights converted to LED and will be closely followed by Hastings in early 2014.ESCC Highways/Colas Electrical Many UK councils are undergoing mass-replacement schemes to LED, and though streetlights are being removed along many long stretches of UK motorways (as they are not needed and cause light pollution), LEDs are preferred in areas where lighting installations are necessary.
In North America, the city of Mississauga, Canada was one of the first and largest LED conversion projects, with over 46,000 lights converted to LED technology between 2012 and 2014. It is also one of the first cities in North America to use Smart City technology to control the lights. DimOnOff, a company based in Quebec City, was chosen as a Smart City partner for this project. In the United States, the city of Ann Arbor,
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Photovoltaic-powered LED luminaires are gaining wider acceptance. Preliminary field tests show that some LED luminaires are energy-efficient and perform well in testing environments.
In 2007, the Civil Twilight Collective created a variant of the conventional LED streetlight, namely the Lunar-resonant streetlight. These lights increase or decrease the intensity of the streetlight according to the Moon light. This streetlight design thus reduces energy consumption as well as light pollution.
Outdoor Site-Lighting Performance (OSP) is a method for predicting and measuring three different aspects of light pollution: glow, trespass and glare. Using this method, lighting specifiers can quantify the performance of existing and planned lighting designs and applications to minimize excessive or obtrusive light leaving the boundaries of a property.
A frequently claimed advantages of street lighting is the prevention of automobile collisions and subsequent increase in safety.Rea, M. S., J. D. Bullough, C. R. Fay, J. A. Brons, J. Van Derlofske and E. T. Donnell. 2009. Review of the Safety Benefits and Other Effects of Roadway Lighting report. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board. Studies have often shown that crashes and fatalities frequently occur at night,Sullivan, J.M., and Flannigan, M.J. (1999) Assessing the Potential Benefit of Adaptive Headlighting Using Crash Databases, Report No. UMTRI-99-21. University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. but night is also associated with other effects that are associated with collisions such as Somnolence and drunk driving. Despite the widespread presumption that streetlights increase safety, recent studies with large sample sizes have generally found little to no impact of lighting or changes of lighting (e.g. switch offs or dimming) on collisions. A study based on in-car roadway and driver cameras examining the moments leading up to over 2500 crashes found that driver error (e.g. improper turns) and behavior (e.g. reaching for something in the cabin) are the strongest contributors to crash frequency, and that improperly designed lighting may have in fact been a contributing factor to some of the crashes.
Another widely assumed benefit of street lighting is that it reduces crime. Claims for large crime reductions have been made in a number of studies, but many such studies have been criticized for inappropriate design. Well-conducted large-scale studies generally find little to no evidence that lighting or changes in lighting has an impact on nighttime crime rates. In a meta-analysis of studies examining the relationship between street lighting changes and crime, the studies that examined nighttime crime were consistent with no measurable effect (95% confidence interval 0.95-1.11).
Towns, cities, and villages can use the unique locations provided by lampposts to hang decorative or commemorative banners. Many communities in the US use lampposts as a tool for fundraising via lamppost banner sponsorship programs first designed by a US-based lamppost banner manufacturer. "Lamppost Banner Sponsorship Programs"
There are also physical dangers to the posts of streetlamps, other than children climbing them for recreational purposes. Streetlight stanchions (lampposts) pose a collision risk to motorists and pedestrians, particularly those affected by poor eyesight or under the influence of alcohol. This can be reduced by designing them to break away when hit (known as frangible, collapsible, or passively safe supports), protecting them by guardrails, or marking the lower portions to increase their visibility. High winds or accumulated metal fatigue also occasionally topple streetlights.
Independent assessments report that adaptive and networked controls can provide additional savings beyond LED retrofits, while also enabling asset management and faster fault response; actual savings depend on duty cycle, dimming strategy, and sensor accuracy.
Regulations increasingly limit standby power in connected luminaires and controls (e.g., EU <0.5 W; California <0.2 W), which affects whole-system efficacy for "smart" installations.
If it is desired to light a roadway (perhaps due to heavy and fast multi-lane traffic), to avoid the dangers of casual placement of street lights, it should not be lit intermittently since this requires repeated eye readjustment, which causes asthenopia and temporary blindness when entering and leaving light pools. In this case, the system is designed to eliminate the need for headlights. This is usually achieved with bright lights placed on high poles at close, regular intervals so that there is consistent light along the route. The lighting goes from curb to curb.
In the United Kingdom, the Roads Liaison Group has issued a Code of Practice recommending specific reactive and preventative maintenance procedures.
Some street lights in New York City have an orange or red light on top of the luminaire (light fixture) or a red light attached to the lamppost. This indicates that near to this lighting pole or in the same intersection, there is a fire alarm pull box. Other street lights have a small red light next to the street light bulb; when the small light flashes, it indicates an issue with the electric current.
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