15th century ▶ London – the earliest origin of street lights
In 1417, in order to brighten up the dark winter nights in London, the mayor of London, Henry Barton, issued an order to hang lamps outdoors for lighting. Later, his initiative was supported by the French.
16th century ▶ Paris – Street Lighting Decree
In the early 16th century, lighting fixtures had to be installed outside the windows of Parisian residential buildings facing the street. During the reign of Louis XIV, many street lights appeared on the streets of Paris. In 1667, Louis XIV, known as the “Sun King”, also officially promulgated the city road lighting decree. Legend has it that it was because of the promulgation of this decree that Louis XIV’s reign was called the “Age of Light” in French history.
1807 ▶ British gas lamps
The original street lights were relatively weak because they used ordinary candles and oil. Later, after switching to kerosene, the brightness of street lights was significantly improved, and the real revolution in street lights came after the appearance of gas lamps. But at first, its inventor, the Englishman William Murdoch, was ridiculed. Walter Scott once praised a madman in a letter to a friend for using a street lamp that emits “black smoke” to illuminate the night of London. Although Murdoch’s street lamp caused a lot of controversy, the advantages of this street lamp cannot be ignored. In 1807, this new type of street lamp was installed on Pall Mall Street and soon became popular in the capitals of European countries.
1843 ▶ Shanghai Kerosene Lamp
In 1843, the first street lamp appeared on the streets of Shanghai, China. Although it was lit by kerosene, it was more sacred than moonlight in people’s minds. Crowds of people on the Huangpu River went to see it. Later, the street lamps in Shanghai’s concessions were changed to gas lamps, which were transplanted from London. The brightness was several times higher than that of kerosene lamps. In the eyes of pedestrians at night, it was simply the “sun” at night.
It was not until 1879 that the first electric light in China was finally lit at the Shiliupu Wharf in Shanghai. It was equipped with a 10-horsepower internal combustion engine generator, which was equivalent to the power of a hand tractor. The initial street lights were equipped with knife switches on each pole, and they still needed to be turned on and off manually every day. Three years later, it was changed to multiple street lights sharing one switch. This form of street lights was used in cities across the country until the 20th century.
1873 ▶ Electric Lights
The history of human electric lighting is closely linked to the names of two inventors, the Russian Alexander Lodkin and the American Thomas Edison. In 1873, Alexander Lodkin won the Lomonosov Prize awarded by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences for designing incandescent light bulbs. Soon, this light bulb was used to illuminate the St. Petersburg Navy Building. A few years later, Thomas Edison improved this light bulb, making it brighter and cheaper to produce. With the emergence of a large number of this light bulb, gas lamps quickly withdrew from road lighting, and electric lights replaced it, becoming an important tool for outdoor lighting in cities at night.
1906 ▶ Beijing government-run street lights
The Beijing Huashang Electric Light Company first installed government-run street lights in Dongcheng. The officials who managed the street lights were called inspectors. These electric lights were the earliest electric street lights in Beijing, and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
1911 There were more than 600 electric lights in the street lights in the seven districts of Beijing.
1929 Beijing’s kerosene gauze lamps were gradually replaced by electric lights.
1943 The last batch of 87 kerosene street lights in Beijing were replaced by electric lights, and kerosene lamps withdrew from the stage of history.
1950 Beijing decided that the Beijing power supply company would act as an agent to collect street light fees, changing the original 4% increase based on the clear electricity price to 5%.
1959 ▶ Premier Zhou personally approved the Tiananmen street lights
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the founding of New China, Beijing carried out the construction of ten major buildings and Tiananmen Square. The lights on Chang’an Avenue were also designed and produced at this time. At that time, there were many design schemes for the street lamps on Chang’an Avenue. The lotus lamp and cotton boll lamp used now were personally approved by Premier Zhou.
1960 23 fluorescent street lamps were installed in the Qianmen area. This was the first time that Beijing tried a new light source, which greatly improved the illumination of street lamps.
1981 ▶ Beijing high-pole street lamps
Beijing already has 36 flyovers. In order to beautify the city and avoid the proliferation of electric poles, Beijing flyovers began to use high-pole street lamps. The first high-pole street lamp in Beijing was built at the Chegongzhuang roundabout. At that time, the lamp pole was 23.5 meters high, and the upper lamp panel had a diameter of 5 meters. It was divided into two layers, with 16 lamps in the outer circle and 8 lamps in the inner circle, but only 8 lamps were turned on at ordinary times.
After the 1990s ▶ Upgrade of light source technology
With the emergence of new light source technology, it was gradually upgraded to high-intensity gas discharge lamps and LED street lamps.
Post-street light era – smart street lights
1993 The concept of smart cities has quietly emerged around the world. Many developed countries have actively carried out the construction of smart cities, organically connecting the information of public service resources such as water, electricity, oil, gas, and transportation in the city through the Internet, responding intelligently, and better serving the needs of citizens in learning, life, work, and medical care, as well as improving the government’s management of transportation and environmental control.
2006 The European Union launched the European Living Lab organization, which uses new tools and methods, advanced information and communication technologies to mobilize “collective wisdom and creativity” from all aspects to provide opportunities for solving social problems. The organization also launched the European Smart City Network.
2008 At the Council on Foreign Relations held in New York, IBM proposed the concept of “Smart Earth”, which in turn triggered a wave of smart city construction.
2010 IBM formally proposed the vision of “smart cities”, hoping to contribute to the development of cities in the world and China.
2013 More than 400 cities around the world competed for the title of the most intelligent city. Finally, these 7 cities were selected, namely: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Oulu, Finland, Stratford, Canada, Taichung, Taiwan, Tallinn, Estonia, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, Toronto, Canada
2015 On April 7, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Science and Technology announced the third batch of national smart city pilot lists, and determined that 84 cities (districts, counties, and towns) including Mentougou District, Beijing, were newly added pilots for national smart cities in 2014. By 2013, the country has approved a total of 290 smart city pilots.
2016 On May 11, the 2016TMF Live Global Summit was held in Nice, France. At the meeting, it was officially announced that the “2016TMF Global Smart City Summit” will be held in Yinchuan from September 7 to 9. By then, more than 500 government and enterprise representatives from home and abroad will once again focus on “Smart Yinchuan” and discuss in depth the next step of smart city construction. In view of Yinchuan’s leading position in the field of global smart city construction and its outstanding contributions to the industry, TMF intends to make Yinchuan the permanent venue for the Global Smart City Summit.
Smart city construction has become an irreversible historical trend in the development of cities in the world today. Smart cities need smart street lights. Street lights carry more than just lighting, but also more demands for human wisdom and a better life. Smart street lights have become the most natural entry point for the implementation of smart city construction. They illuminate the road to smart city construction and point the way for builders exploring smart cities.
Post time: Mar-25-2025