Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1895 — Origin of Street Lighting. [ARTICLE]

Origin of Street Lighting.

The custom of lighting the streets dates back to remote antiquity. In the cities of Greece the streets were lighted after a fashion by means of very old fashioned lamps suspended or set in sockets in prominent positions. Similar plans were followed in Rome and in the Egyptian cities, and relics of these have been found which date back to the fourth century before Christ. The lamps used were for the most part primitive in form. Many of them were made of skulls of animals or of sea shells of a convenient size and shape. The general principal of these lamps was copied in the stone cups and boxes used in later years. The lights at best were very inadequate, and it was customary for those who ventured on the streets at night to carry blazing torches. Crime of all sorts flourished under such a system. It w’as not uncommon in ancient Rome to find a number of dead and mangled bodies lying about the streets every morning. The lamps used in this period were exquisitely decorated, but for several centuries not a single improvement was made to increase the light. The lamps were made usually of bronze and covered with figures in bas relief taken from mythology or from subjects of daily life.