Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1918 — Ornamental Lamp Posts. [ARTICLE]

Ornamental Lamp Posts.

There is no feature of municipal equipment that adds more to the attractiveness of a city’s appearance than do ornamental street lamp posts of artistic and appropriate design. Just as the effectiveness of Interior decorations and furnishings depend in a large measure upon lighting fixtures, so the beauty of the street can be enhanced or marred by its lights. In each case a satisfactory solution of the lighting problem consists not only in supplying sufficient Illumination but also in providing lighting equipment that harmonizes with its surroundings and possesses ■ a beauty of its own. The old-time lamp post in vogue before the days of electricity fulfilled the second of these conditions but not the first; for, although the post Itself was often a work of art, its feeble oil or gas flame seldom was equal, to the task of Illuminating the street. On the other hand, the modern overhead arc lamp gives a fairly satisfactory tight, but the 'unsightly poles, ropes, wires and other equipment for raising and lowering the lamp can scarcely be called beautiful. Now comes the ornamental street lamp post which combines the beauty of ope of its predecessors and the utility of the other. - Thomas J. Davis, in the House Bqputiful.