OPINIONS DIFFER

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 60, 12 March 1934, Page 9

OPINIONS DIFFER

LAMBTON QUAY LIGHTING

HIGHLY EFFICIENT, BUT—

The special street lighting which was introduced in Lambton Quay is for the time being,, at any rate, no more, for the lamps; which were simply on loan to the City Council, have been removed and are being demonstrated in other centres. Opinions differed considerably as to the success of the experiment. That the lamps, which follow a principle entirely different from that of incandescent filament lamps, were highly efficient as light producers there is no question, for the length of Lambton Quay where thoy were used was never so brightly illuminated, but the quality of new light is also entirely different from what the public has become accustomed to. The curious misty blue (tosuiting from the use of mercury vapour in the lamp) plays havoc with colours and complexions, though it is still a far more ploasaut lighting than that of the sodium monochromatic high efficiency light which preceded it. The sodium lights, when first introduced, were spoken of merely as traffic way lights, for. it was recognised that their dead yellow would be too. ghastly for interior or business area use. The later type, utilising other gases, improved the light quality tremendously, and the misty blue is ■ unquestionably more pleasant than the yellow. Research is continuing. English publications contain many references to the new system of lighting, claiming an efficiency of two and a half to three times that of standard lighting, and state that in certain centres experiments arc being made by mixing new lamps with old, the filament type lamps being grouped about the gaseous lamp in such a way that the light rays blend and so remove the present objection. Whether Wellington will use the new lights in any considerable degree, as in through traffic streets, is not yet stated. . .