
Still, in the mid 17th century it was a common practice for travelers to hire a lantern-bearer if they had to move at night through the dark, winding streets. In 1588 the Parisian Parliament decreed that a torch be installed and lit at each intersection, and in 1594 the police changed this to lanterns.
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Public street lighting was first developed in the 16th century, and accelerated following the invention of lanterns with glass windows by Edmund Heming in London and Jan van der Heyden in Amsterdam, which greatly improved the quantity of light. According to some sources, illumination was ordered in London in 1417 by Sir Henry Barton, Mayor of London though there is no firm evidence of this. The earliest lamps required that a lamplighter tour the town at dusk, lighting each of the lamps. So-called " link boys" escorted people from one place to another through the murky, winding streets of medieval towns.īefore incandescent lamps, candle lighting was employed in cities. In the words of Edwin Heathcote: "Romans illuminated the streets with oil lamps, and cities from Baghdad to Cordoba were similarly lit when most of Europe was living in what it is now rather unfashionable to call the Dark Ages but which were, from the point of view of street lighting, exactly that." Īt the verge of the Middle Ages, cities like Antioch had their streets lit, a practice which continued across the Arab Empire, long before Europe. However, denizens of Beijing could be the first to use "fixed position lighting" (unlike hand-carried torches and lamps), as far back as 500 B.C., utilizing hollow bamboo as a piping and naturally occurring gas vents to create kind of street lamps. A slave responsible for lighting the oil lamps in front of Roman villas was called a lanternarius. At that time, oil lamps were used predominantly, as they provided a long-lasting and moderate flame. Main articles: Oil lamp and Gas lighting Preindustrial era Įarly lamps were used in the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civilizations, where light primarily served the purpose of security, both to protect the wanderer from tripping on the path over something or keeping potential robbers at bay. Street lights are an important source of public security lighting intended to reduce crime.

Many street light systems are being connected underground instead of wiring from one utility post to another. This function in older lighting systems could be performed with the aid of a solar dial.


Many lamps have light-sensitive photocells that activate the lamp automatically when needed, at times when there is little-to-no ambient light, such as at dusk, dawn, or at the onset of dark weather conditions. When urban electric power distribution became ubiquitous in developed countries in the 20th century, lights for urban streets followed, or sometimes led.ĭetail of a street light from Paris Detail of a street light with Cupid, at the Austrian Parliament Building ( Vienna) Similar lights may be found on a railway platform.

A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path.
