Illumination items: By the lighting and illumination committee: New practises in street lighting

Abstract

Two radical departures have been made in the installation of a new street-lighting system in Kansas City, Mo. These are the removal of all street-lighting equipment in each of seven substations, and the placing of a large part of the lamp circuits underground, a special cable buried in the earth without ducts save at street crossings being used. Ducts are used at street crossings to facilitate repairs in case of cable burnouts or other breakdowns. The removal of all of the usual series transformer and switching equipment from the substations means the saving of a great amount of valuable space and in some cases obviated the necessity of special substations for the street-lighting equipment. This in itself has meant a material saving in expense. The placing of the series circuits underground has enabled the use of a simple and attractive ornamental post on streets where there are no street-car lines. On the streets with street-car lines and steel trolley poles, the conductors being carried overhead. The plans which were followed made possible the avoidance of the unsightly wiring and lamp supports that overhead construction usually involves. These results have been attained because it was possible to start with a comparatively clean slate, much of the previous street lighting having been with gas.