Douglas D. Schumann Library & Learning Commons: Special Topics: Engineering Boston: Street Lighting

Street Lighting

Annual Report of the Superintendent of Lamps, 1897-1905
Provides an accounting of the department's budget and activities. It also describes the various types of lighting used in Boston at the beginning of the 20th century,
Boston DPW: Taking Care of Boston's Streetlights
Information on the conversion to LED lighting, with facts and figures on Boston's streetlighting system.
Dynamo-electric Machines for Arc and Incandescence Lighting (1888)
This catalog was produced by the Brush Electric Company which provided the first arc lighting in Boston.
The Dynamo: How It Is Made and How to Use It (1888)
An illustrated textbook on late 19th-century electric power generators and lighting.
The Edison Incandescent Electric Light (1886)
An illustrated brochure showing the electric light bulb and equipment used in the Edison electric lighting system.
Edison vs. Westinghouse: A Shocking Rivalry
This Smithsonian Magazine article discusses the "War of the Currents" waged between George Westinghouse's alternating current (invented by Nikola Tesla) and Thomas Edison's direct current electrical system.
History of the Brush Electric Company
This company supplied Boston with high-powered arc lighting equipment in the early 1880s. It later merged with the Edison General Electric Co.
The Incandescent Gas Light: Its History, Character and Operation.(1896)
A detailed description of gas lighting, as well as lamps produced by various manufacturers in the closing years of the 19th century.
Souvenir, Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston (1911)
A commemorative pamphlet on the incandescent illumination of Boston by the Edison Company on February 20, 1886.
Switching the Light: From Chemical to Electrical
This article by Massimo Guarnieri recounts the progression from gas lighting to arc lighting and, finally, to incandescent street lighting.

Books on Urban Street Lighting

American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750–1865 by Jeremy Zallen
Call Number: E-book

ISBN: 146965332X

Publication Date: 2019
Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century by Wolfgang Schivelbusch; Angela Davies (Translator)
Call Number: 392.36 .S35 1988

ISBN: 0520203542

Publication Date: 1995

Special Topics: Engineering Boston

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Street Lighting

Books on Urban Street Lighting