Tower of Light: When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon
And so, for a brief and literally shining moment early in the days of human-harnessed electricity, the future of municipal lighting was glowing orbs suspended high above cities — towers, resembling oil derricks, capped with 4 to 6 arc lamps with a candlepower of 2,000 to 6,000 each. These manmade moons made the ultimate promise to the people below them: that they would never again be in the dark.
Read more. [Images: Library of Congress, Not Even Past, Wikimedia Commons]
