The Development of Street Lighting in Great Britain

Abstract

The development of street lighting in Britain is traced from the twenties, when it was treated as an illumination problem, to the present day. A series of milestones marks the progress made, beginning with the British Standard Specification of 1927, and the Sheffield experiments and the I.C.I. meeting in America of 1928. The most important was the coming of electric discharge lamps in 1932; they resulted in new studies and a fresh approach to the whole problem beginning in 1934. Another very important event was the issue of the Ministry of Transport Departmental Committee's Report in 1937; 1939 marked not progress but regress, for public lighting in Britain ceased for ten years. In the post-war period there has been some technical progress and the coming of tubular fluorescent lamps, and improved lanterns.

The present notions of the theory of four systems of lighting—non-cutoff, semi-cutoff, cutoff, and unidirectional systems—are described and a brief review of modern lanterns is given. The outstanding problems of street lighting are stated.