Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1914 — NEW YORK CITY By NIGHT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW YORK CITY By NIGHT

WHEN old Sol goes to beCbe'hlnd the distant Jersey hills, and the stars make their appearance overhead ln4heir deep blue canopy, then, in a twinkling, New York rushes from the cover of darkness, turns on the switch, and greets the night by becoming the brightest spot on earth. • To attain this result, a huge number of lamps is required, over 2,000,000 of about 45,000,000 candle power. The street lamp illumination, under municipal direction, although of first importance, is not by half the only why that. Manhattan dispels the darknees. To this should be added the enormous candle power of thousands of electric signs, and hundred of lights in front of stores, theaters, hotels, apartment houses and In shop windows. On top of these must be piled up high the. 8,000,000 candle power of the lights which radiate from put of the windows of the buildings, both public and privates and also the exposed lighting from building decorations. Glittering Marvel. just, as soon as the evening begins Broadway, Seventh avenue, Eighth avenue, all the cross streets between the Battery and Van Cortland park, the arches of twinkling incandescents on the four East river bridges, every highway and byway in the five boroughs of the greater city is a-sparkle with lamps. In upper New York and across on Long Island, long, serried lines of glittering points reach out through and dispel the darkness, marking distinctly the course of boulevards and" highways that connect the city with the

outside world. Here and there, In the very heart of It high spots of illumination, veritable aisles of light reveal parks and public squares. • Viewed as a whole, it’s'a wonderful glittering marvel of eye-dazzling illumination. And then, by way of contrast to think that ten years ago New York was down and out as a well lighted city. Electricity long freely used In other towns had hardly come Into use and feeble gas lamps with open flame were in the majority, with only here and there, at rare intervals, arc lamps and mantle gas lamps mixed in. Then, one day, just a decade back, the people woke up. They were tired of stumbling home through dismal streets, and of being held up and relieved of their valuables under fover Of the darkness. A general demand was made that something be 'done quickly to improve the street lighting. The city was heard, and then, as Aladdin rubbed his lamp electricity beued and the arc lamps were practically gan to come into its own. The flicferlng open flame lamps were dlscontindoubled in number at avenue and street intersections, and symmetrically arranged on street house fines. The city began to be really lit up. City engineers and central station men worked like beavers, to Improve conditions, onee their interest wap aroused, and in the short space of the time mentioned, the street lighting of New York was revolutionised until its present effectiveness is the admiration and wonder of all visitors. In New York today there are W. 746 street lights, both arc and incandescent. There are 19,180 arcs and 17,991 incandescents and every one of them is burning every night in the year. In the borough of Manhattan alone 9,584 arc lamps are employed to light the city's main thoroughfares and cross streets, as well as 4,897 Incandescent

lamps, the last being used principally In park lighting. , The best lighted thoroughfare in New York today, in fact in this whole country, Is Fifth avenue. Lighting experts after comparing this street with the best lighted streets in London and Berlin, are of the opinion that the American method of illuminating this highway Is by far the best yet reached. Fifth avenue, once a dark and gloomy tunnel, began to attract attention as a particularly well lighted street, a beautiful vista of glowing arcs, when in 1892 it was first lighted with the Ward type of multiple two-ln-series, and the installation of these lamps was x he foundation of the present efficient arc lamp equipment in New York streets. The city is still experimenting in street Illumination, looking to the improvement of the system in general. The Great White Way which attracts at night the visitor to the city like the magnet does the needle, is, of course, the brightest spot on Manhattan island. But It is not the city, but the individual, the. advertiser, who makes it so. • New York merchants stand in line and fight over their position for the use of some electric sign sites, so eager are they to add to the general glare emanating from upper Broadway. One single man will pay from SIO,OOO to |15,000 a year for a good site, and he’s glad to do it It is estimated that more than a million dollars is spent yearly in site rentals alone. Displays on Broadway.

As nehr as can be estimated there are at least 5,100 electrical displays on Broadway between Twenty-third street

and Fifty-ninth street, having nearly a million lamps. That the cost of lighting the Great White Way for ten or twelve blocks in the environs of Forty-second street mounts into millions each year is generally admitted by electric experts—just how many they cannot say. It must not be thought for an instant that the white-light district is the only section of the big town, in which electrical signs are to bo found, as aside from those on Broadway at least 8,000 of them are distributed in various other sections of the borough of Manhattan. These contain at the lowest estimate 750,000 lamps, which contribute $ 6,000,000 added candle power to the general illumination. Brooklyn has 2,000 more electric signs to its credit, which are responsible for 1,000,000 additional candle power, while in the Bronx, Queens and Richmond sections many more electric signs are to be found doing their part toward making Greater New York at night the moot brilliant city in the world.