LIGHTING STREET LAMPS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 5

LIGHTING STREET LAMPS

TEST OF NEW DEVICE. / PHOTO-ELECTRIC CELLS. City council officers in Sydney are experimenting with an apparatus operated by means of a photo-electric cell, Ly which it is hoped that the lighting and switching-off of street lamps will be automatically controlled by ordinary daylight. The existing system of time switches, operated by clockwork, is considered in Sydney to be out of date and costly. There are frequent failures, as the result of which a section of lamps may either bum uselessly during daylight or fail to illuminate at night. Tests carried out with a photo-elec-tric cell installation on the top of the Electricity Department’s building at the Town Hall have shown that the illumination of lamps can be regulated, to different degrees of daylight, and it is probable that the system will ultimately be adapted to all street lighting. Time switches made no provision for an unexpected early fading of daylight, or for its extension. A thunderstorm, rain or fog may plunge the city streets into darkness some time before the customary hour of nightfall, for the switches canot be regulated to provide for these contingencies. On the other hand, a cleat sky may have the effect of extending slightly the hours of daylight, so that electric current switched on at the fixed time may be wasted. The use of the photoelectric cell would obviate these difficulties by automatically lighting the lamps when darkness fell, and extinguishing them again when the light is no longer required. ’‘The system will inevitably have to come into use for street lighting, says the general manager of the Electricity Department, Mr. Mackay,