Street Lighting (in the city)

Categories / City Services/Housing and Communal Services
STREET LIGHTING. In 1718 Tsar Peter the Great issued a decree on "lighting St. Petersburg city streets". In 1720 the first oil lanterns were installed on the streets (architect J.B. Le Blond); they were lighted from August through April. Street lighting was under the management of the Chief Police Office. The lanterns were handled by hired lamplighters. The running order of lanterns was attended to by night-watchmen (since 1782 by box police officers). By 1727 the number of street lamps in St. Petersburg reached 595. Since the mid-18th century kerosene was first used in lanterns. In 1770 the first lamp crew of 100 persons (recruits) was hired to service the lamps; in 1808 it was made a part of the police corps. In 1819 gas lamps appeared on Aptekarsky Island. The Gas Lighting St. Petersburg Society was founded in 1835 (see also Gas supply services). In 1849 spirit lamps appeared. In the late 1850s there were 3,132 oil lanterns, 936 gas ones, 4,426 spirit lamps in St. Petersburg. In 1873 pilot electrical torches with carbon-filament lamps by A.N. Lodygin (a memorial plaque on 60 Suvorovsky Avenue), the first of its kind in the world were installed on Odesskaya St. In 1879 electrical torches with arc-discharge lamps of P.N. Yablochkov were first installed on city streets. In 1883 an electric power station on the Moyka River beside Politseysky Bridge (Siemens and Galske Company) was put into operation for lighting of Nevsky Prospect. In 1886-99 there were four electric power stations in the city (Gelios Company, Plant of Belgium company, etc.) serving the needs of street lighting as were 213 electrical torches. By the early 20th century St. Petersburg had nearly 200 electric power stations. In the 1910s metal-filament light bulbs appeared (Tungsten lamps since 1909). In 1914 there were 13,950 street lamps in Petrograd (3,020 electrical torches, 2,505 kerosene lamps, and 8,425 gas lanterns). After October 1917, major electric power stations were nationalized. By the late 1920s, a united power grid of Leningrad had formed (headed by Electrotok Trust, Lenenergo since 1932); all the street lighting was electricity-powered. In the early 1970s, the first luminescent lamps appeared (Nevsky Prospect, Moskovsky Avenue). Decorative lighting has been used to highlight the city's most significant buildings and constructions since the late 1960s.

References: Семенович Г. Л. Уличное освещение города С.-Петербурга: Очерк развития освещения столицы с ее основания по 1914 г. Пг., 1914; Иванов А. М. Невские огни: Из истории улич. освещения Петербурга–Ленинграда. Л., 1969.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Le Blond Jean-Baptiste Alexander
Lodygin Alexander Nikolaevich
Peter I, Emperor
Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich
Moskovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city
Odesskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Suvorovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 60
Семенович Г. Л. Уличное освещение города С.-Петербурга: Очерк развития освещения столицы с ее основания по 1914 г. Пг., 1914
Иванов А. М. Невские огни: Из истории улич. освещения Петербурга - Ленинграда. Л., 1969 Central Police Office
Gas Supply Services
Elektrosila Plant
LENENERGO
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