Public lighting in Spain

Comillas (Cantabria) "Comillas (Cantabria)") was the first Spanish town to have electric lighting in its streets in 1881, as attested by the chronicles of the time during the royal summer of Alfonso but it was paid for by the Marquis of Comillas.[9]​.

The first public lighting, that is, under the initiative and financing of its city council, was in Jerez de la Frontera, which would make it the first city in Spain to have public lighting by electricity in its streets. Planned since 1880, with an electricity factory on Caracuel Street,[10]​ in May 1890, the Jerez de la Frontera city council installed electric lighting on several streets in its historic center, installing a total of 22 streetlights, which were just installed in July of that same year. In 1893, it was extended to more streets.[11]​.

Present

In Turin, Italy, engineer Guido Chiarelli distinguished himself as a public lighting pioneer for his numerous innovative projects in the 1950s and 1960s.

Later, in the 1950s, the high-pressure mercury vapor lamp was developed, which is an electric arc lamp whose discharge occurs within a gas under high pressure, which is why it was called HID, for its acronym High Intensity Discharge, also known as DAI, High Intensity Discharge. It was not as successful as expected, so its use was limited. In these lamps, due to the degradation of the internal components, luminous intensity is lost quickly, but it is a point source of light. After the mercury vapor lamp, the low-pressure sodium vapor lamp was developed in the 1970s, which emits monochromatic light.

A decade later, in the 1980s, the high-pressure sodium vapor lamp was developed, whose light is amber in color, but has a slightly higher color rendering index, is a more punctual light source and is smaller in size than the low-pressure sodium vapor lamp, which makes it easier to handle and allows for a better design of the luminaires. This is one of the most efficient and used current street lighting light sources, in which this lamp falls into the HID or DAI category.

Currently, most cities have lighting installed with sodium vapor lamps. However, this type of luminaire is of medium efficiency, which is why it is out of use and the usual practice in new public lighting projects is to use LED luminaires. This technology achieves savings in public accounts after replacement thanks to the possibility of being able to achieve the same lighting but with less power, due to its greater lighting efficiency and superior light directing capacity.

Electric street lights

The first electric lamps used were of the electric arc type, initially the electric candles, Jablochoff candles or Yablochkov candles developed by the Russian Pavel Yablochkov in 1875. These were electric arc lamps with carbon electrodes that used alternating current, which guaranteed that the electrodes burned regularly. Yablochkov candles were first used to light the Grand Magasins de Louvre department store in Paris in the 1880s. Shortly afterwards they were installed experimentally on the Holborn Viaduct bridge and the Thames Embankment in London. More than 4,000 of these lamps were in use in 1881, although by then improvements in differential arc lamps had already been developed by Friederich von Hefner-Alteneck") of the German company Siemens & Halske. The adoption of arc lighting was rapid in the United States. By 1890 about 130,000 were installed.

Timișoara, in Romania, was the first city in continental Europe to have electric public lighting. On November 12, 1884, he installed 731 lamps. The same year in the city of San José, Costa Rica, national electrification began, becoming the third city in the world and the first in Latin America to have general electrification.

José Francisco Javier Severiano Adolfo Estrada, together with Pedro Dionisio de la Garza Cepeda from Monterrey, the first Mexican with a doctorate in the area of ​​physics, achieved the lighting of the first electric arc light on the American continent. This during a charity event that took place at the Scientific and Literary Institute of San Luis Potosí, today the Central Building of the UASLP. It was November 1877. This date becomes relevant if we take into account that Thomas Alva Edison is considered the inventor of electric light due to the lighting of his incandescent bulb on October 22, 1879, that is, two years after the Potosí works. Also in 1877, they managed to illuminate the front and one of the sides of the Government Palace in the Plaza de Armas of San Luis, making the streets of Jardín Hidalgo and Carranza the first to have electric lighting in all of America and one of the first in the World.

The electric arc light had two major drawbacks. It emitted an intense light and a great release of heat. This, although useful for industrial areas such as shipyards, was uncomfortable for city streets. In addition, it required a lot of maintenance due to the rapid wear of the carbon electrodes. At the end of the century, with the development of cheap, bright and reliable incandescent lamps, arc light lamps fell into disuse for public lighting, remaining for industrial uses.

At the beginning of the century, in 1905, the fluorescent lamp was briefly used after the incandescent lamp in street lighting, mainly because it is not a point source of light, even though it is more efficient than incandescent lamps.

Public lighting in Spain

Comillas (Cantabria) "Comillas (Cantabria)") was the first Spanish town to have electric lighting in its streets in 1881, as attested by the chronicles of the time during the royal summer of Alfonso but it was paid for by the Marquis of Comillas.[9]​.

The first public lighting, that is, under the initiative and financing of its city council, was in Jerez de la Frontera, which would make it the first city in Spain to have public lighting by electricity in its streets. Planned since 1880, with an electricity factory on Caracuel Street,[10]​ in May 1890, the Jerez de la Frontera city council installed electric lighting on several streets in its historic center, installing a total of 22 streetlights, which were just installed in July of that same year. In 1893, it was extended to more streets.[11]​.

Present

In Turin, Italy, engineer Guido Chiarelli distinguished himself as a public lighting pioneer for his numerous innovative projects in the 1950s and 1960s.

Later, in the 1950s, the high-pressure mercury vapor lamp was developed, which is an electric arc lamp whose discharge occurs within a gas under high pressure, which is why it was called HID, for its acronym High Intensity Discharge, also known as DAI, High Intensity Discharge. It was not as successful as expected, so its use was limited. In these lamps, due to the degradation of the internal components, luminous intensity is lost quickly, but it is a point source of light. After the mercury vapor lamp, the low-pressure sodium vapor lamp was developed in the 1970s, which emits monochromatic light.

A decade later, in the 1980s, the high-pressure sodium vapor lamp was developed, whose light is amber in color, but has a slightly higher color rendering index, is a more punctual light source and is smaller in size than the low-pressure sodium vapor lamp, which makes it easier to handle and allows for a better design of the luminaires. This is one of the most efficient and used current street lighting light sources, in which this lamp falls into the HID or DAI category.

Currently, most cities have lighting installed with sodium vapor lamps. However, this type of luminaire is of medium efficiency, which is why it is out of use and the usual practice in new public lighting projects is to use LED luminaires. This technology achieves savings in public accounts after replacement thanks to the possibility of being able to achieve the same lighting but with less power, due to its greater lighting efficiency and superior light directing capacity.