Editing Street light (section)

==History==
{{main article|Oil lamp|Gas lighting}}

===Preindustrial era===
Early lamps were used in the [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Ancient Roman]] civilizations, where light primarily served the purpose of [[Security lighting|security]], to both protect the wanderer from tripping on the path over something and keep potential robbers at bay. At that time, oil lamps were used predominantly, as they provided a long-lasting and moderate flame. A slave responsible for lighting the oil lamps in front of Roman villas was called a {{lang|la|lanternarius}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Beer |first=E. S. |date=1941 |title=The Early History of London Street-Lighting |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24401837 |journal=History |volume=25 |issue=100 |pages=311–324 |issn=0018-2648}}</ref>

In the words of [[Edwin Heathcote]], "Romans illuminated the streets with oil lamps, and cities from [[Baghdad]] to [[Córdoba, Spain|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."<ref name="Heathcote-2021-architectural-review">{{cite web |author1=Edwin Heathcote |author1-link=Edwin Heathcote |title=From pillar to lamp post: lighting city streets |url=https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/from-pillar-to-lamp-post-lighting-city-streets |publisher=Architectural Review |access-date=15 May 2023 |date=7 September 2021}}</ref><ref name="Heathcote-2015-Financial Times">{{cite web |author1=Edwin Heathcote |title=Architecture: how street lights have illuminated city life |url=https://www.ft.com/content/5f4dfbc2-c32c-11e4-9c27-00144feab7de |work=Financial Times|location=London |access-date=15 May 2023 |date=13 March 2015}}</ref>

So-called "[[link boy]]s" escorted people from one place to another through the murky, winding streets of medieval towns.

Before [[incandescence|incandescent]] lamps, [[candle]] lighting was employed in cities. The earliest lamps required that a [[lamplighter]] tour the town at dusk, lighting each of the lamps. 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.<ref>Roskell, J. S. and Clark, L. and Rawcliffe, C. (editors) [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/barton-henry-1435 BARTON, Henry (d.1435), of London. – History of Parliament Online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816045930/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/barton-henry-1435 |date=16 August 2014 }}, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421. {{ISBN|9780862999438}}. 1993.</ref> 

Public street lighting was first developed in the 16th century,<ref>{{cite journal | title = The Policing of Street Lighting | first = Wolfgang | last = Schivelbusch | journal =  Yale French Studies| number = 73 | year = 1987 | pages = 61–74 | doi = 10.2307/2930197 | jstor = 2930197 }}</ref> and accelerated following the invention of lanterns with glass windows by Edmund Heming in London and [[Jan van der Heyden]] in Amsterdam,<ref>Ekirch, A. Roger, 1950At day’s close : night in times past / A. Roger Ekirch.—Ist ed. p.72 ISBN 0-393-05089-0, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 Www.wwnorton.com</ref> which greatly improved the quantity of light. 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.{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|pages=835–836}} 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.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Art V. Social Life of England and France, A Comparative View of the Social Life of England and France, from the Restoration of Charles II. to the French Revolution. By the Editor of Madame du Deffand's Letters | journal = Southern Journal | number = XII | date = November 1830 | location = Charleston | publisher = A. E. Miller | page = 395 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gbIRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA395 | quote = Until 1662, the streets of Paris were so dark and dangerous, that the monopoly of flambeau-bearers and lantern-carriers was established for the security of night visiting in Paris.}}</ref> King [[Louis XIV]] authorized sweeping reforms in [[Paris]] in 1667, which included the installation and maintenance of lights on streets and at intersections, as well as stiff penalties for vandalizing or stealing the fixtures.<ref name=Tucker>{{citation | url = https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/how-paris-became-city-light | title = How Paris Became the City of Light: Louis XIV hires the city's first police chief | first = Holly | last = Tucker | date = 22 March 2017 | work = Lapham's Quarterly | access-date = 17 February 2020}}</ref> Paris had more than 2,700 streetlights by the end of the 17th century,<ref name=Tucker /> and twice as many by 1730.<ref>{{cite book | title = What We Did in Bed: A Horizontal History | first1 = Brian | last1 = Fagan | first2 = Nadia | last2 = Durrani | year = 2019 | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven and London | isbn = 978-0-300-22388-0 | page = 41}}</ref> Under this system, streets were lit with lanterns suspended {{convert|20|yd|m}} apart on a cord over the middle of the street at a height of {{convert|20|ft|m}}; as an English visitor enthused in 1698, 'The streets are lit all winter and even during the full moon!'{{sfn|Fierro|1996|page=837}} In London, public street lighting was implemented around the end of the 17th century; a [[Diary|diarist]] wrote in 1712 that 'All the way, quite through Hyde Park to the Queen's Palace at Kensington, lanterns were placed for illuminating the roads on dark nights.'<ref name=Millar>{{cite journal | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oz08AQAAMAAJ&pg=185 | title = Historical Sketch of Street Lighting | first = Preston S. | last = Millar | pages = 185–202 | journal = Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society | publisher = Illuminating Engineering Society | location = New York City | volume = XV | number = 3 | date = 30 April 1920}}</ref>

A much-improved oil lantern, called a {{lang|fr|réverbère}}, was introduced in 1745 and improved in subsequent years. The light shed from these réverbères was considerably brighter, enough that some people complained of glare.<ref name=Millar /> These lamps were attached to the top of lampposts;<ref name=Millar /> by 1817, there were 4,694 lamps on the Paris streets.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} During the [[French Revolution]] (1789–1799), the revolutionaries found that the lampposts were a convenient place to hang aristocrats and other opponents.{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=836}}

===Gas lamp lighting===
{{main article|Gas lighting}}
The first widespread system of street lighting used piped [[coal gas]] as fuel. [[Stephen Hales]] was the first person who procured a flammable fluid from the actual distillation of coal in 1726 and John Clayton, in 1735, called gas the "spirit" of coal and discovered its flammability by accident.

[[File:Murdoch House & St. Rumon's Gardens.jpg|left|thumb|William Murdoch's house in [[Redruth]], UK, the first domestic house in the world to be lit by gas]]
[[William Murdoch]] (sometimes spelled "Murdock") was the first to use this gas for the practical application of lighting. In the early 1790s, while overseeing the use of his company's steam engines in [[tin mining]] in Cornwall, Murdoch began experimenting with various types of gas, finally settling on coal-gas as the most effective. He first lit his own house in [[Redruth]], Cornwall in 1792.<ref>Janet Thomson; ''The Scot Who Lit The World, The Story of William Murdoch Inventor of Gas Lighting''; 2003; {{ISBN|0-9530013-2-6}}</ref> In 1798, he used gas to light the main building of the [[Soho Foundry]] and in 1802 lit the outside in a public display of gas lighting, the lights astonishing the local population.

[[File:Street Lighting and Posts Morris Tasker and Co Illustrated Catalogue (1871).jpg|thumb|upright|Streetlights from an 1871 catalog]]
The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]], London on 4 June 1807 by [[Frederick Albert Winsor]].<ref>'Pall Mall, South Side, Past Buildings: Nos 93–95 Pall Mall, F.A. Winsor and the development of gas lighting', in Survey of London: Volumes 29 and 30, St James Westminster, Part 1, ed. F H W Sheppard (London, 1960), pp. 352–354. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols29-30/pt1/pp352-354 [accessed 10 August 2023].</ref>
 
In 1811, Engineer [[Samuel Clegg]] designed and built what is now considered the oldest extant gasworks in the world. Gas was used to light the worsted mill in the village of [[Dolphinholme]] in North Lancashire. The remains of the works, including a chimney and gas plant, have been put on the National Heritage List for England. Clegg's installation saved the building's owners the cost of up to 1,500 candles every night. It also lit the mill owner's house and the street of millworkers' houses in Dolphinholme.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/earliest-surviving-gasworks-remains-protected/ | title=Remains of World's Earliest Surviving Gasworks Now Protected &#124; Historic England | date=15 July 2020 }}</ref>

In 1812, [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] granted a charter to the London and Westminster [[Gas Light and Coke Company]], and the first gas company in the world came into being. Less than two years later, on 31 December 1813, the [[Westminster Bridge]] was lit by gas.<ref>{{cite web | author=The London Gasketeers | title=The London Gasketeers | website=The London Gasketeers | date=15 March 2019 | url=https://thelondongasketeers.com/a-brief-history | access-date=12 July 2024}}</ref>

Following this success, gas lighting spread outside London, both within Britain and abroad. The first place outside London in England to have gas lighting, was [[Preston, Lancashire]] in 1816, where [[Joseph Dunn (revolutionary)|Joseph Dunn]]'s Preston Gaslight Company introduced a new, brighter gas lighting. Another early adopter was the city of [[Baltimore]], where the gaslights were first demonstrated at [[Rembrandt Peale]]'s Museum in 1816, and Peale's Gas Light Company of Baltimore provided the first gas streetlights in the United States. In the 1860s, streetlights were started in the Southern Hemisphere in [[Streets Lights in New Zealand|New Zealand]].

Kerosene streetlamps were invented by Polish pharmacist [[Ignacy Łukasiewicz]] in the city of [[Lemberg]] ([[Austrian Empire]]), in 1853. His kerosene lamps were later widely used in Bucharest, Paris, and other European cities. He went on to open the world's first mine in 1854 and the world's first kerosene refinery in 1856 in [[Jasło]], Poland.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kępa |first1=Marek |title=Ignacy Łukasiewicz: The Generous Inventor of the Kerosene Lamp |url=https://culture.pl/en/article/ignacy-lukasiewicz-the-generous-inventor-of-the-kerosene-lamp |website=Culture.pl |access-date=26 August 2024}}</ref>

In Paris, public street lighting was first installed on a covered shopping street, the [[Passage des Panoramas]], in 1817, private interior gas lighting having been previously demonstrated in a house on the rue Saint-Dominique seventeen years prior. The first gas lamps on the main streets of Paris appeared in January 1829 on the [[place du Carrousel]] and the [[Rue de Rivoli]], then on the [[rue de la Paix, Paris|rue de la Paix]], [[place Vendôme]], and rue de Castiglione. By 1857, the ''[[Boulevards of Paris|Grands Boulevards]]'' were all lit with gas; a Parisian writer enthused in August 1857: "That which most enchants the Parisians is the new lighting by gas of the boulevards...From the church of the Madeleine all the way to rue Montmartre, these two rows of lamps, shining with a clarity white and pure, have a marvelous effect." The gaslights installed on the boulevards and city monuments in the 19th century gave the city the nickname "The City of Light."{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=838}}

[[Oil-gas]] appeared in the field as a rival of coal-gas. In 1815, [[John Taylor (civil engineer)|John Taylor]] patented an apparatus for the decomposition of "oil" and other animal substances. Public attention was attracted to "oil-gas" by the display of the patent apparatus at [[Apothecary's Hall]], by [[Taylor & Martineau]].

During the period of gas lighting, lights were not generally left on for the entire night, nor were they necessarily turned on during periods of [[moonlight]]. In an article about the development of streetlighting in three industrial cities, Mark Bouman reported that [[Max Greve]], the mayor of [[Bochum]], [[Germany]], "fought all his life against 'absurd modernism,' which would have had the lights on even when the moon shone."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bouman |first1=Mark J. |title=Luxury and Control: The Urbanity of Street Lighting in Nineteenth-Century Cities |journal=Journal of Urban History |date=1 November 1987 |volume=14 |issue=1 |page=21 |doi=10.1177/009614428701400102 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/009614428701400102 |access-date=14 May 2025 |language=EN |issn=0096-1442|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

====''Farola fernandina''====
''Farola fernandina'' is a traditional design of gas streetlight which remains popular in Spain. Essentially, it is a neoclassical French style of gas lamp dating from the late 18th century. It may be either a wall-bracket or standard lamp. The standard base is cast metal with an escutcheon bearing two intertwined letters 'F', the [[Royal cypher]] of King [[Ferdinand VII of Spain]]<ref>{{cite web |url = http://esasevilla.blogspot.com.es/2010/05/las-fernandinas.html |publisher = Esa Sevilla blogspot |title = Las fernandinas |date = 22 May 2010 |language = es |access-date = 19 June 2014 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140606233239/http://esasevilla.blogspot.com.es/2010/05/las-fernandinas.html |archive-date = 6 June 2014}}</ref> and commemorates the date of the birth of his daughter, the [[Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier]].<ref>{{cite web |url = http://farolasfernandinas.blogspot.com.es/ |publisher = Amigos de las farolas ferdinandinas |title = "Ya a la venta el libro "Las farolas fernandinas por los cuatro costados" book review |date = 7 September 2009 |access-date = 9 June 2014 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140517133224/http://farolasfernandinas.blogspot.com.es/ |archive-date = 17 May 2014}}</ref>

<gallery align="center">
File:Base de farola fernandina.jpg|Typical base and escutcheon of a ''farola fernandina''
File:Aranjuez FarolaFernandina.jpg|A ''farola fernandina'' in [[Aranjuez]]
File:Aranjuez PalacioReal Farola.jpg|Streetlight in Ferdinand VII style near the [[Royal Palace of Aranjuez]]
File:Paris Notre Dame19042017.jpg|
</gallery>

===Arc lamps===
[[File:Yablochkov candles illuminating Avenue de l'Opera ca1878.jpg|thumb|Demonstration of [[Pavel Yablochkov|Yablochkov's]] [[Yablochkov candle|arc lamp]] on the Avenue de l'Opera in Paris (1878), the first form of electric street lighting]]
[[File:BCBG Lamppost 01.JPG|right|thumb|upright|Heritage lamp post in the [[City Botanic Gardens]], [[Brisbane]]]]
The first electric street lighting employed [[arc lamps]], initially the "electric candle", "Jablotchkoff candle", or "[[Yablochkov candle]]", developed by Russian [[Pavel Yablochkov]] in 1875. This was a carbon arc lamp employing [[alternating current]], which ensured that both electrodes were consumed at equal rates. In 1876, the common council of the city of [[Los Angeles]] ordered four arc lights installed in various places in the fledgling town for street lighting.<ref>William H. Workman, The City That Grew (1929) Mirror-Press, Los Angeles, p.</ref>

On 30 May 1878, the first electric streetlights in Paris were installed on the avenue de l'Opera and the [[Place Charles de Gaulle|Place de l'Étoile]], around the [[Arc de Triomphe]], to celebrate the opening of the [[Exposition Universelle (1878)|Paris Universal Exposition]]. In 1881, to coincide with the Paris International Exposition of Electricity, streetlights were installed on the major boulevards.{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=628}}

The first streets in London lit with the electrical arc lamp were by the [[Holborn Viaduct]] and the [[Thames Embankment]] in 1878. More than 4,000 were in use by 1881, though by then an improved differential arc lamp had been developed by [[Friedrich von Hefner-Alteneck]] of [[Siemens & Halske]]. The United States was quick in adopting arc lighting, and by 1890 over 130,000 were in operation in the US, commonly installed in exceptionally tall [[moonlight tower]]s.

Arc lights had two major disadvantages. First, they emit an intense and harsh light which, although useful at industrial sites like dockyards, was discomforting in ordinary city streets. Second, they are maintenance-intensive, as carbon electrodes burn away swiftly. With the development of cheap, reliable and bright [[incandescent light bulb]]s at the end of the 19th century, arc lights passed out of use for street lighting, but remained in industrial use longer.

===Incandescent lighting===
[[File:Map of electric street lighting in Tamworth NSW, 1888.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Map of [[Tamworth, New South Wales]], showing the position of leads and lights along the network of city streets in 1888]]
The first street to be lit by an [[incandescent lightbulb]] was Mosley Street, in [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]]. The street was lit for one night by [[Joseph Swan]]'s incandescent lamp on 3 February 1879.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.frognet.net/~ejcov/jwswan.html |title=Sir Joseph Wilson Swan |publisher=home.frognet.net |access-date=16 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510005841/http://home.frognet.net/~ejcov/jwswan.html |archive-date=10 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rsc.org/Chemsoc/Activities/ChemicalLandmarks/UK/JosephSwan.asp |title=Sir Joseph Swan, The Literary & Philosophical Society of Newcastle |date=3 February 2009 |publisher=rsc.org |access-date=16 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110901143453/http://www.rsc.org/Chemsoc/Activities/ChemicalLandmarks/UK/JosephSwan.asp |archive-date = 1 September 2011 |url-status = dead}}</ref> Consequently, Newcastle has the first city street in the world to be lit by electric lighting.<ref name=Mosely>{{cite web| title = Electric lighting| publisher = ncl.ac.uk| url = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/special-collections/exhibitions/current-and-past-exhibitions/very_truly_yours/science/swan/electric_light/| access-date = 3 June 2014| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140606212620/http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/special-collections/exhibitions/current-and-past-exhibitions/very_truly_yours/science/swan/electric_light/| archive-date = 6 June 2014}}</ref> 
The first city in the United States to successfully demonstrate electric lighting was [[Cleveland]], Ohio, with 12 electric lights around the [[Public Square, Cleveland|Public Square]] road system on 29 April 1879.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/public-square |title=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|date=18 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://clevelandmagazine.com/cleader/government/articles/cleveland-was-the-first-city-of-light |title=Cleveland was the First City of Light}}</ref> [[Wabash, Indiana]], lit 4 Brush arc lamps with 3,000 [[candlepower]] each, suspended over their courthouse on 2 February 1880, making the town square "as light as midday".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.electricmuseum.com/exhibits/arclamps/brush.shtml |title=Brush Arc Lighting |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724073937/http://www.electricmuseum.com/exhibits/arclamps/brush.shtml |archive-date = 24 July 2008 |url-status = dead}}</ref>

[[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]], [[Cape Colony]] (modern South Africa), was the first city in the [[Southern Hemisphere]] and in Africa to have electric streetlights – with 16 first lit on 2 September 1882.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kimberley.org.za/2-september-today-in-kimberleys-history/ |title=Today in Kimberley's History History 2 September|date=2 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.solplaatje.org.za/explore_history.php |title=Timeline of Firsts |access-date=11 January 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100928112704/http://www.solplaatje.org.za/explore_history.php |archive-date=28 September 2010}}</ref> The system was only the second in the world, after that of [[Philadelphia]], to be powered municipally.

In Central America, [[San Jose, Costa Rica|San Jose]], Costa Rica, lit 25 lamps powered by a hydroelectric plant on 9 August 1884.<ref>{{cite web | title=Is Costa Rica Different? A Treasure Chest of Discoveries | website=ReVista | date=20 April 2024 | url=https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/is-costa-rica-different-a-treasure-chest-of-discoveries/ | access-date=12 July 2024}}</ref>

Nuremberg was the first city in [[German Empire|Germany]] to have electric public lighting on 7 June 1882, followed by Berlin on 20 September 1882 (Potsdamer Platz only).

[[Timișoara|Temesvár]] (Timișoara in present-day Romania) was the first city in the [[Austria-Hungary|Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy]] to have electric public lighting, on 12 November 1884; 731 lamps were used.<ref>{{cite web | title=History-1884 | website=Transelectrica | date=14 April 2016 | url=https://www.transelectrica.ro/en/web/tel/istoric-1884 | access-date=12 July 2024}}</ref>

On 9 December 1882, [[Brisbane]], Queensland, Australia was introduced to electricity by having a demonstration of 8 arc lights, erected along [[Queen Street Mall, Brisbane|Queen Street Mall]]. The power to supply these arc lights was taken from a 10&nbsp;hp Crompton DC generator driven by a Robey steam engine in a small foundry in Adelaide Street and occupied by [[Joseph William Sutton|J. W. Sutton and Co.]]<ref>{{cite web | title=Early Electric Lighting | website=Queen's Wharf History | url=http://queenswharf.org/stories/early-electric-lighting/ | access-date=12 July 2024}}</ref> In 1884, [[Walhalla, Victoria]], had two lamps installed on the main street by the Long Tunnel (Gold) Mining Company. In 1886, the isolated mining town of Waratah in [[Tasmania]] was the first to have an extensive system of electrically powered street lighting installed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Preston |first=Keith  |date=September 2010 |title=Mount Bischoff Tin Mines: Pioneers of water power in the Tasmanian mining industry |journal=Journal of Australasian Mining History |volume=8 | url=https://www.mininghistory.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/9-Preston.Vol_.8..compressed.pdf |pages=148–171 }}</ref> In 1888, the New South Wales town of Tamworth installed a large system illuminating a significant portion of the city, with over 13&nbsp;km of streets lit<ref>{{cite news |last=Correspondent |date=12 November 1888 |title=STREET LIGHTING BY ELECTRICITY |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/6908584 |work=Melbourne Argus |access-date=9 November 2018}}</ref> by 52 incandescent lights and 3 arc lights.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lobsey |first=Ian |year=1988 |title=City of light |publisher=Peel-Cunningham County Council |pages=35–63 |isbn=978-0731657780}}</ref> Powered by a municipal power company, this system gave Tamworth the title of "First City of Light" in Australia.

On 10 December 1885, [[Härnösand]] became the first town in Sweden with electric street lighting, following the [[Gådeå power station]] being taken into use.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.hemab.se/elnat/omvartelnat/elenshistoriaiharnosand.4.4217f32e1628bc6795e35a8.html|title=Elens historia i Härnösand|publisher=Härnösand energi och miljö|language=Swedish|date=June 2016|accessdate=20 February 2021}}</ref>

=== Later developments ===
[[Incandescent lamp]]s were primarily used for street lighting until the advent of high-intensity [[gas-discharge lamp]]s. They were often operated at high-voltage [[Series and parallel circuits#Series circuits|series circuits]]. Series circuits were popular since their higher voltage produced more light per watt consumed. Furthermore, before the invention of photoelectric controls, a single switch or clock could control all the lights in an entire district.

To avoid having the entire system go dark if a single lamp burned out, each streetlamp was equipped with a device that ensured that the circuit would remain intact. Early series streetlights were equipped with isolation transformers.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhYBAAAAMAAJ&q=%22general+electric+review%22 |title=General Electric review |volume=23 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511123841/http://books.google.com/books?id=BhYBAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22general+electric+review%22 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |year=1920 |publisher=General Electric Company }}</ref> that would allow current to pass across the transformer whether the bulb worked or not.

Later, the '''film cutout''' was invented. This was a small disk of insulating film that separated two contacts connected to the two wires leading to the lamp. If the lamp failed (an [[Open-circuit voltage|open circuit]]), the [[current (electricity)|current]] through the string became zero, causing the voltage of the circuit (thousands of volts) to be imposed across the insulating film, [[antifuse|penetrating]] it (see [[Ohm's law]]). In this way, the failed lamp was bypassed and power was restored to the rest of the district. The streetlight circuit contained an automatic current regulator, preventing the current from increasing as lamps burned out, preserving the life of the remaining lamps. When the failed lamp was replaced, a new piece of film was installed, once again separating the contacts in the cutout. This system was recognizable by the large [[porcelain]] insulator separating the lamp and reflector from the mounting arm. This was necessary because the two contacts in the lamp's base may have operated at several thousand volts above ground.