Street Light Technical Information Willis Lamm   STREET LIGHTS: Patents from 1800 through 1886

Patents are an effective way to understand the development of street lighting in the United States. In this section I have posted patents as I located them. (Early patents are difficult to locate as they were not cross-indexed.) All patents are listed in order of their filing dates. Click on the patent number or thumbnail to view the entire patent.

The earlier patents primarily involved gas lamps and improved ways to direct light from their gas mantles. As the 19th Century drew to a close, inventors began to experiment with electric street lighting.

Patent No. 116234 Filing date: April 4, 1871 Patent date: June 20, 1871 Title: Improvement in Street Lamps Inventor: Roland H. Smith Claims: Improved support of gas lamp glass structure.
Patent No. 116234 Filing date: April 4, 1871 Patent date: February 6, 1872 Title: Improvement in Signs for Street-Lamps Inventor: W. Hamilton Bell and John G. Jory Claims: Street sign apparatus to fit onto street lamps.
Patent No. 170451 Filing date: May 22, 1875 Patent date: November 30, 1875 Title: Improvement in Lanterns Inventor: Edward S. Ritchie Claims: Addition of reflectors to direct more light horizontally and downward.
Patent No. 219208 Filing date: May 15, 1879 Patent date: September 2, 1879 Title: Improvement in Electric Lamps Inventor: Charles F. Brush Claims: Arc lamp with multiple pairs of electrodes.
Patent No. 387615 Filing date: September 29, 1881 Patent date: August 7, 1888 Title: System of Combined Arc and Incandescent Lights Inventor: Harold P. Brown Claims: Isolation autotransformer to operate low intensity incandescent lamps by tapping off a high tension arc circuit.
Patent No. 270339 Filing date: November 28, 1882 Patent date: January 9, 1883 Title: Reflector for Street Lamps Inventor: Edward S. Ritchie Claims: Improved reflector design for street lamps.
Patent No. 420109 Filing date: January 2, 1883 Patent date: January 28, 1890 Title: Electric-Arc Lamp Inventor: Charles E. Scribner Assignee: Western Electric Co. Claims: Magnetic type arc lamp electrode feed.
Patent No. 376007 Filing date: June 6, 1884 Patent date: January 3, 1888 Title: Electric Arc-Lamp Inventor: William H. Miller Claims: Arc lamp with clutch-clamp type electrode feed system.
Patent No. 391595 Filing date: August 7, 1884 Patent date: October 23, 1888 Title: System of Electric Lighting Inventor: Thomas A. Edison Claims: System for controlling arc circuits so that groups of lamps operate during different time intervals.
Patent No. 350046 Filing date: June 26, 1885 Patent date: September 28, 1886 Title: Electric-Lamp Post Inventor: Harry M. Doubleday and James Lyman Claims: Method of converting gas lamp posts to overhead electric street lighting.
Patent No. 418757 Filing date: October 3, 1885 Patent date: January 7, 1890 Title: Electric-Arc Lamp Inventor: Charles E. Scribner Assignee: Western Electric Co. Claims: Dual sets of electrodes used successively.
Patent No. 388594 Filing date: October 12, 1885 Patent date: August 28, 1888 Title: Electric-Arc Lamp Inventor: Lewis Walcott Spencer and Frederick Powers Jaquith Claims: Magnetic feed system for carbon electrodes.
Patent No. 422910 Filing date: November 23, 1885 Patent date: March 11, 1890 Title: System of Arc and Incandescent Electric Lighting Inventor: Harold P. Brown Claims: System for running branch incandescent circuits from an arc lamp circuit.
Patent No. 379792 Filing date: December 3, 1885 Patent date: March 20, 1888 Title: Electric-Arc Lamp Inventor: Edward R. Knowles Assignee: Mutual Electric Manufacturing Co. Claims: Improved insulation for arc lamp electrode holders.
Patent No. 393473 Filing date: January 9, 1886 Patent date: November 27, 1888 Title: Incandescing Electric Lamp Inventor: Edward H. Johnson Assignee: Edison Electric Light Co. Claims: Series lamp bulb designed to eliminate internal arc damage when filament failed.
Patent No. 342552 Filing date: February 16, 1886 Patent date: May 25, 1886 Title: System of Electrical Distribution Inventor: George Westinghouse, Jr. Claims: Series lighting circuit design with tap transformers for low voltage lamps.
Patent No. 430357 Filing date: March 20, 1886 Patent date: June 17, 1890 Title: Electric-Arc Lamp Inventor: Elihu Thomson Assignee: Thomson-Houston Electric Co. Claims: Magnetic and motor driven electrode feed.
Patent No. 391254 Filing date: April 22, 1886 Patent date: April 17, 1888 Title: Regulator for Electric Currents Inventor: Edward R. Knowless Assignee: Mutual Electric Manufacturing Co. Claims: Constant current regulator for series circuits.
Patent No. 394180 Filing date: May 17, 1886 Patent date: December 11, 1888 Title: Cut-Out for Electric Lamps Inventor: Charles Heisler Claims: Solenoid cutout for series lamps.
Patent No. 356282 Filing date: May 24, 1886 Patent date: Jenuary 18, 1887 Title: Electric-Arc Lamp Inventor: August Harding Claims: Reciprocating system for automatically adjusting carbon electrodes.
Patent No. 418758 Filing date: July 2, 1886 Patent date: January 7, 1890 Title: Electric-Arc Lamp Inventor: Charles E. Scribner Assignee: Western Electric Co. Claims: Improved double carbon arc lamp feeding system.
Patent No. 378818 Filing date: August 19, 1886 Patent date: February 28, 1888 Title: Double-Arc Lamp Inventor: Merle J. Wightman and Einar Rasmussen Claims: Arc lamp with two sets of electrodes where the second switches in when the first set fails or is used up.
Patent No. 393447 Filing date: September 7, 1886 Patent date: November 27, 1888 Title: Electric Arc-Lamp Inventor: Gustav Pfannkuche Claims: Gear driven electrode feeding system for arc lamps.
Patent No. 392393 Filing date: December 1, 1886 Patent date: November 6, 1888 Title: Arc Lamp Inventor: George Westinghouse, Jr. Claims: Electrode feeding system with counterweight for arc lamps.

Patents filed before 1890 have been somewhat difficult to locate. If you are aware of an inventor or patent, please contact me at the link provided below.

Continue to 1887 - 1889

Go to Patents Index Page

Please note: This index is a work in progress. If you notice an error or are aware of something that is missing, please feel free to Email me. Thanks!