SYDNEY BLACK-OUT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 42, 18 August 1941, Page 8

SYDNEY BLACK-OUT

FIRST EXPERIMENT

IMPRESSING HOUSEHOLDERS

(Rec. 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, August 17,

The whole metropolitan area of Sydney experienced its first complete black-out tonight between 9.30 and 10 p.m.," when an area of 20 miles to the north, south, and west, together with the city proper, was plunged into sudden darkness at the signal of hundreds of screaming siren's. '

To a majority of the citizens of Sydney the experience was entirely new and eerie. The black-out led to complete dislocation of the transport sys-

tern. Drivers of trams, trains, buses, and cars, acting on the principle of "safety first," stayed put in the jet blackness for the full half-hour.

Formations of aeroplanes crossed the starlit sky during the black-out observing the results of the experiment, which .is regarded as eminently successful and is said to have done more to impress householders with the grim realities of the war than everything yet tried by the politicians.

The regulations for the test blackouts provide that all public lighting should be switched off and all exterior lighting, including advertising signs, should be extinguished; all interior lighting extinguished or windows screened so that no light can be seen from the outside; all vehicles, including bicycles, without the standard masked headlamps, in the area must pull to the left-hand side of the road and extinguish all lights other than the red portion of the tail-light.

Apart from official and doctors' cars, ambulances and fire brigades on urgent call, only cars fitted with stan-dax-d masked headlamps were allowed to move "in the area during the test, the maximum speed permitted being 20 m.p.h. The public was requested to use at least one room during the test by screening all the windows, fanlights, and ventilators, with suitable dark material, so that no light could be seen from the outside.