Happy Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception!
This link is about lighting street lamps at night in Austin, Texas, many years ago. It reminded me of family stories.
My great great grandfather’s job in Boston after the Civil War, was to light the lamps of the city at night. I don’t actually know how many lamps he was responsible for, nor what the lamps burned. Since he suffered from shell shock and medicated it with booze, he was occasionally incapacitated. Then his 14 year-old son would go out to light the lamps for him. This was not actually permitted by law but if the lamps weren’t lit the family would go hungry.
So I loved this video, discussing how Austin brought light to its city in 1895. These so-called moonlight towers had carbon-arc bulbs that had to be replaced constantly. So even though they didn’t technically have to be lit every night, someone had to climb these 165 foot towers to replace the bulbs, almost as often.
I found another story (The Complete Guide… See below) which included this line…
“The hilly terrain of Austin made smaller street lamps a financial impossibility.”
It made me wonder what was so special about hilly Austin compared to hilly Boston. However, this story also included murder and mayhem. Maybe the towers shouldn’t have been so high.
Also if you want to read a brief mention of George Evans, the 14-year old boy, here is a link to Griffith Evans, George’s son, beginning with his parentage.
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