A HISTORY OF LIGHTING IN DETROIT

COMMERATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ILLUMINATING ENGINEERING SOCIETY OF

NORTH AMERICA

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ACKNOWLEGMENTS

The IES Michigan Section would like to thank the following for the information and background for this work:

DTE EnergyThe Greenfield VillageThe Henry FordPeter Basso Associates, Inc.

Without their help, this book would not have been possible.

Copyright 2005

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Campus Martius, Detroit, Michigan, 1906

Candles or small lamps that burned lard or whale oil lighted the homes and

public streets of Detroit in the 1800's. The

lights for public streets were oil lamps

mounted on posts, located at street corners.

At the time, Detroit boasted a population of

900 people.

By the middle of the century, whale oil and

candles gave way to kerosene lamps. But the

sooty and smelly kerosene was soon

competing with a flourishing gas lighting

business. In 1872, two gas companies, The

Mutual Gas Company and Detroit Gaslight Company divided the city between

them. The Mutual Gas Company took over the east side and the Detroit Gaslight

Company took over the west side of Woodward. The incandescent light bulb

made its first Detroit appearance at Metcalf Brothers dry goods store in 1883.

Soon other merchants in the city's central business district started demanding

light bulbs of their own.

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In the 19th century, there were

three forms of public lighting gas

lighting, electric arc lighting, and

electric incandescent lighting.

The standard eventually became

incandescent lighting.

Gas lighting was used for public lighting and interior lighting in both residences

and businesses. The gas used was a coal gas which was accidentally discovered

in the 1840's as a by-product of tar production. After gas was extracted from the

coal, it was stored, and

then delivered to users

through a network of

pipes laid under city

streets. The primary

drawback to gas

lighting was the danger of fire, particularly indoors. Leaking or partially closed

light fixtures could fill a room or building with an explosive volume of gas,

resulting in a deadly blast that often led to fire. The Great San Francisco

Earthquake of 1906 is also known as The Great Fire because the greater part of

its destruction was the result of fire caused by the quake-shattered gas lighting

network.

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Gas lighting, because of its soft glow, was barely adequate indoors, but

outdoors, the dim glow scarcely carried from the lamppost, creating shadows on

the street below.

Arc

Light

ing

Towe

r

Arc lighting, which gave a bright light similar to a mercury vapor lamp, offered

a solution to this problem. Arc lighting, used an electric current passed between

two carbon electrodes, creating an arc. Light results from both the arc and the

incandescence of the carbon electrodes as they burn in the open air. In the

1880's, the City of Detroit contracted for six arc lighting towers in downtown

around Campus Martius. Though the arc lighting towers continued to appear in

downtown photographs up to the late 1910's, it is unclear when they were

abandoned for the use of incandescent fixtures on street poles.

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Above, Campus Martius ca. 1920 is seen at night lit by incandescent lighting from both public light poles and commercial signs

Some of Detroit’s History with Electric Lighting:

1879 Detroit's first electric lights switched in the Free Press building on West Larned

First electric light in a home was turned on for the wedding of Grace McMellon.

1883 Electric Arc Street LightingThe first electric arc street lighting was installed on Jefferson and Woodward.

1886 The Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit was established and served its first customers. Seven years later, Edison Illuminating and other electric companies in and around Detroit consolidated which later formed the Detroit Edison Company.

1895 The city began its own public lighting in April 1895, having a large plant on the river near the center of the city. It lights the streets and public buildings, but makes no provision for commercial business. The street lighting is done partly from pole and arm lights, but largely from

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steel towers from 100 ft. to 180 ft. in height, with strong reflected lights at the top.

Henry Ford, left, at the Edison Illuminating Co., 1895

1918 The first red, yellow, green traffic light was installed at Michigan and Monroe.

1948 June 15, the first night game at Briggs Stadium, now known as former Tiger Stadium. Eight light towers were erected with 1,458 light bulbs.The Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics 4-1. This was the last stadium in the American League to install lights, second to last old classic ballpark, before Wrigley Field.

1981 On November 23, 1981, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and Windsor Mayor Bert Weeks jointly turned the switch to illuminate the Ambassador Bridge for the first time in its history.

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Menlo Park at Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan

Menlo Park, New Jersey, ca. 1880.

Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory complex and the inventions he made

there are over 100 years old. When Edison built the laboratory in 1876, it was

the first industrial research laboratory in the United States. Four years later, in

1880, Menlo Park looked virtually abandoned.

By 1886, Edison and his entire team had abandoned the Menlo Park site. In the

1920s, Henry Ford wanted to move the old "invention factory" to his museum in

Dearborn, Michigan. When Ford and Edison went to New Jersey to recover the

buildings they found that most of them had been removed or had collapsed. Ford

had his staff reconstruct the Menlo Park buildings from photographs and a few

surviving original materials.

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Edison's laboratory at Menlo Park after it was rebuilt at Greenfield Village. Edison said the only thing Ford got wrong was that the floors were so clean.

Henry Ford and Thomas Edison laying the cornerstone of Henry Ford Museum, 1929

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Edison recreating the invention of the incandescent light bulb at Greenfield Village dedication, 1929.

Ford and Edison at the 50th anniversary of the incandescent bulb

Edison, left, President Hoover, and Ford tour the rebuilt Menlo Park lab.

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Menlo Park Laboratory

This is the reconstructed laboratory where Thomas Edison made most of is

famous experiments including the incandescent lamp.

Menlo Park Office and Library

This replica building is where Thomas

Edison’s staff took care of business

accounting and correspondence and

drawings for his patents and dealt with

reporters as well. Edison had an office and

research library on the second floor.

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Menlo Park Glass Shed

Built in 1876 in Menlo Park,

New Jersey, and relocated in

1929 this is where Thomas

Edison and his workers did

glassblowing for the instruments,

experiments and the glass

envelope for the lamps.

Menlo Park Machine Shop

Built in 1929 in Greenfield Village this is a Replica of original machine shop.

In this building Edison’s ideas were but into three-dimensional form. The upper room of this building served as the first central power station whenThomas Edison demonstrated his

lighting system to the press on New Year’s Eve 1879.

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Edison Illuminating Company - Detroit

Greenfield

Village’s Edison

Illumination

Company, built in

Greenfield Village

in 1944, is a partial

reconstruction, one-

quarter size, of

Station A, the first

of the Edison Illuminating Company’s early power plants in Detroit Station

and the first electric power plant in the city of Detroit. Station A served

Detroit customers with safe and

inexpensive direct current (DC) electrical

power for homes and businesses from

1886 to 1900. Coal-burning boilers on the

first floor, provided power to steam

engines which were connected to

dynamos on the floor above.

Henry Ford began working at the Edison Illumination Company as a steam

engineer in 1893, eventually rising to chief engineer for this plant in 1893. He

could have had a successful career in the electric power industry but left it in

1899 to try a risky new business of designing gasoline-powered automobiles.

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IESNA Michigan Section History

The Michigan Section of the IESNA was chartered in May of 1923, which

covered the whole state of Michigan. In May 1925, the section was separated

where the western counties were assigned into a new Western Michigan Chapter

and Gogebic County in the western side of the Upper Peninsula was assigned to

the Twin City Section. At the time, local membership was at 248, including all

of Michigan. As of 2005, our section has 170 members.

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IES Michigan Section

Past Presidents

1924-1926 James Ketch 1966-1967 Ray Williams, Jr.1926-1927 H.A. Cook 1967-1968 Louis Mueller1927-1928 Howard Shaw 1968-1969 Kenneth Miller.1928-1929 C. C. Monroe 1969-1970 W. W. Paholak1929-1930 J. F. Mayo 1970-1971 Donald Liess1930-1931 H. E. Cook 1971-1972 John Liess1931-1932 Arthur Crowley 1972-1973 W. Johnson, Jr.1932-1933 Harold Wall 1973-1974 Lowell Sutton1933-1934 Earl Anderson 1974-1975 E. B. Edson1934-1935 Charles Conklin 1975-1976 R. J. Hetzel1935-1936 G. W. Smiley 1976-1977 Jack Thompson1936-1937 A. D. Shanks 1977-1978 Donald Davis1937-1938 L. E. Taylor 1978-1979 Robert Reinhard1938-1939 T. P. Brown 1979-1980 Evan Evans1939-1940 A. M. Lorenz 1980-1981 Gary Sutton1940-1941 A. J. Martin 1981-1982 J. LeTourtneau1941-1942 W. I. Knapp 1982-1983 John Bachler1942-1944 George Korton 1983-1984 Chas Frudzinski1944-1945 Donald Trefry 1984-1985 Ernie Hickson1945-1947 Harry Warner 1985-1986 Dominic Pastore1948-1949 George Bogard 1986-1987 Chip Donaldson1949-1950 W. A. Stannard 1987-1988 Denise Jurczyk1950-1951 Ivar Stockel 1988-1989 Mark Switala1951-1952 Alfred Sangster 1989-1990 L.North/C.Gabay1952-1953 Leslie Lyon 1990-1991 Claudia Gabay1953-1954 John Parks 1991-1992 Judy Bentley1954-1955 Floyd Sell 1992-1993 Randy Stowers1955-1956 Edward Fairchild 1993-1994 Richard Kurtzawa1956-1957 Harry Robbins 1994-1995 Douglas Sayles1957-1958 James Finn 1995-1997 Kevin Rettich1958-1959 Edmund Pratt 1997-1999 Mark Gadzinski1959-1960 W. A. Hedrich 1999-2001 Michelle Prew1962-1963 Glen Thorton 2001-2003 Mollie Clarahan1963-1964 Steve Squillace 2003-2004 Mike Callahan1964-1965 Victor Kochajda 2004- Cheryl Yates1965-1966 James Fenn

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Prepared and edited for the IESNA Michigan Section by:

Drew Franklin, LC, IES & Kate Wood, LC, IES

Copyright 2005