This method of using a high-tension current has already been referred
to in connection with house-to-house lighting at Brighton, it was first
employed for the street lighting of Chesterfield by the Brush Company.
The electric lighting of the town of Temesvar, in Hungary, is on a far
larger scale, and has, from November 1884, successfully superseded a
combination of gas for the more important streets, and petroleum for
the outlying ones, the total cost of which was 26,480 florins per
annum. A twenty-four years’ concession was given to the International
Electric Company, the plant remaining their property at the expiration
of the term, subject to purchase by the municipality at their own
valuation. The public lighting is stipulated to be effected by means of
731 glow lamps of the intensity of 16 candle-power; but the option is
given to the company of switching out a fixed proportion of these lamps
at 11.30 P.M., or of leaving the whole number in operation
with their light-intensity reduced from 16 to 8 candle-power from 11.30
P.M. till dawn. The total number of lighting hours per annum
is 3,597½ for the lamps which are in operation from dusk until dawn,
and 1,816 for those which are extinguished at 11.30 P.M. The
price fixed in the concession for public lighting is 1·5 kreutzer per
16 candle-power lamp per hour, equal to 53 florins 95 kreutzers per
lamp per annum of 3,597½ hours, or 27 florins 24 kreutzers per lamp
per annum of 1,816 hours. The company has found it more convenient
to exercise the option reserved to it, of keeping all the 731 lamps
in operation from dusk till dawn, reducing their light-intensity to
8 candles after 11.30 P.M.; and the municipality has agreed
to pay a round sum of 29,000 florins (£2,416 13_s._ 4_d._) per annum
for this lighting, and 41·95 florins (£3 10_s._) per annum for each
additional lamp worked in the same way. Comparing these figures with
what precedes, it will be found that the electric lighting of the
streets now in operation costs 2,520 florins more than it did on
the former plan of combined lighting, partly by gas and partly by
petroleum. On the other hand, the streets are lighted throughout with
16 candle-power lamps from dusk until 11.30 P.M., and with 8
candle-power lamps from 11.30 P.M. until dawn. For electric
light supplied to private consumers the concession fixes the price at
1·81 kreutzers per 16 candle-power lamp per hour, or 0·1131 kreutzers
per candle per hour, with the right to charge 15 per cent. more for
lamps of less intensity than 16 candles. In all these prices the
renewal by the company of lamps failing from legitimate wear is
included.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.