Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1919 — Ornamental Lamp Posts. [ARTICLE]

Ornamental Lamp Posts.

There is no feature in 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 beapty 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 light, but the unsightly poles, ropes, wires and other equipmentfor raising and lowering the lamp can scarcely be called beautiful. Now comes the ornamental street lamp post, which combines the beauty of one Of its predecessors and the utility of the other.—-Thomas J. Davis in The House Beautiful. , I