TODAY IN KIMBERLEY’S HISTORY 2 SEPTEMBER The southern hemisphere’s first street lights switched on in Kimberley, 1882 DID YOU KNOW Electric streetlights made their appearance in 1882, with 16 electric streetlights, four of them outside the City Hall. Kimberley was the first town in South Africa to have electric street lights and quite possibly the first in the southern hemisphere. Swan lamps were used. (Pictured is a replica of the first street lights, this outside the City Hall). Mosley Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England, was the first town in the world to have electric street lights, using Joseph Swan’s incandescent lamps on 3 February 1879. Second in the world was Cleveland, Ohio in the USA on 29 April 1879, followed by New York in 1880. Both the American cities used Thomas Edison’s experimental lamps. Swan then set up a partnership with Edison in 1883, their company being called Ediswan. In Latin America: San Jose, Costa Rica on 9 August 1884 using Ediswan lamps. In mainland Europe: Milan in 1883 In Australia: Tamworth, New South Wales: on 15 May 1888 In Cape Town, an arc-lighting installation was commissioned for the harbor in 1882, while the railway station had four lamps burning by 1881. Interestingly, Charles Rudd was the first person to install electricity in his home - in Newlands, Cape Town, this happening in 1891. In Johannesburg the first electric street lamp was erected on the corner of Rissik and President Streets in October 1895. The French Mining Company experimented with a 300 candle power Lontin arc lamp at the Kimberley Mine in August 1881. The Daily Independent of 15 and 18 August 1881 described it as magnificently brilliant, somewhat resembling the light of the sun.” The Government Inspector of Diamond Mines, WCC Erskine, stated that in 1881 the electric light was introduced for mining operations in the Kimberley Mine, where it was used in the claims and on the margin at the delivery boxes. It was found to be an immense improvement on the old style of lighting by night, viz. paraffin tins filled with waste saturated with paraffin oil.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 02:24:41 +0000