1 Jan 1878 Jahr - Electric arc lamps installed in Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia

Beschreibung:

One of the most dramatic urban amenities was electric light. Gaslight, produced from coal gas, had been used for residential light since the early nineteenth century, but gas lamps were too dim to brighten streets and public spaces. In the 1870s, as generating technology became commercially viable, electricity proved far better. Electric arc lamps, installed in Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia in 1878, astonished viewers with their brilliant illumination. Electric streetlights soon replaced gaslights on city streets.

Before it had a significant effect on industry, electricity gave the city its modern tempo. It lifted elevators, illuminated department store windows, and turned night into day. Electric streetlights made residents feel safer; as one magazine put it in 1912, “A light is as good as a policeman.” Nightlife became less risky and more appealing. One journalist described Broadway in 1894: “All the shop fronts are lighted, and the entrances to the theaters blaze out on the sidewalk.” At the end of a long working day, city dwellers flocked to this free entertainment. Nothing, declared an observer, matched the “festive panorama” of Broadway “when the lights are on.”

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