Part 21

In these days the cost of living has claimed considerable attention and it is interesting to compare that of lighting. In the following table the price of food and of electric lighting are compared for twenty years preceding the recent war. The great disturbance due to the war is thereby eliminated from consideration, but it should be noted that since 1914 the price of food has greatly increased but that of electric lighting has not changed materially. The cost of each commodity is taken as one hundred units for the year 1894 but, of course, the actual cost of living for the householder is perhaps a hundred times greater than the cost of electric lighting.

Year Food Electric lighting 1894 100 100 1896 80 92 1898 92 90 1900 100 85 1902 113 77 1904 110 77 1906 115 57 1908 128 30 1910 138 28 1912 144 23 1914 145 17

One feature of electric lighting which puzzles the consumer and which gives the politicians an opportunity for crying "discrimination" and "injustice" at the public-service company is the great variation in rates. There is no discrimination or injustice when the householder, for example, must pay more for his lighting than a factory pays. The rates are not only affected by "demand" but by the period in which the demand comes. Residence lighting is chiefly confined to certain hours from 5 to 9 P. M. and there is a great "peak" of demand at this time. The central-stations must have equipment available for this short-time demand and much of the capacity of the equipment is unused during the remainder of the day. The factory which uses electricity throughout the day or night or both is helping to keep the central-station operating efficiently. The equipment necessary to supply electricity to the factory is operating long hours. Not only is this overhead charge much less for factories and many other consumers than for the householder, but the expense of accounting, of reading meters, etc., is about the same for all classes of consumers. Therefore, this is an appreciable item on the bill of the small consumer.

Doubtless, the public does not realize that the enormous decrease in the cost of lighting during the past century is due largely to the fact that the lighting industry has grown large. Increased production is responsible for some of this decrease and science for much of it. The latter, having been called to the aid of the manufacturers, who are better able by virtue of their magnitude to spend time and resources upon scientific developments, has responded with many improvements which have increased the efficiency of light-production. Some figures of the Census Bureau may be of interest. These are given for 1914 in order that the abnormal conditions due to the recent war may be avoided. The figures pertaining to the manufacture of gas for sale which do not include private plants are as follows for the year 1914 for this country:

Number of establishments 1,284 Capital $1,252,421,584 Value of products (gas, coke, tar, etc.) $220,237,790 Cost of materials $76,779,288 Value added by manufacture $143,458,502 Value of gas $175,065,920 Coal used (tons) 6,116,672 Coke used (tons) 964,851 Oil used (gallons) 715,418,623 Length of gas mains (miles) 58,727 Manufactured products sold Total gas (cubic feet) 203,639,260,000 Straight coal gas (cubic feet) 10,509,946,000 Carbureted water gas (cubic feet) 90,017,725,000 Mixed coal- and water-gas (cubic feet) 86,281,339,000 Oil gas (cubic feet) 16,512,274,000 Acetylene (cubic feet) 136,564,000 Other gas, chiefly gasolene (cubic feet) 181,412,000 Coke (bushels) 114,091,753 Tar (gallons) 125,938,607 Ammonia liquors (gallons) 50,737,762 Ammonia, sulphate (pounds) 6,216,618

Of course, only a small fraction of the total gas manufactured is used for lighting.

According to the U. S. Geological Survey, the quantities of gas sold in this country in the year 1917 were as follows:

Coal-gas 42,927,728,000 cubic feet Water-gas 153,457,318,000 " " Oil-gas 14,739,508,000 " " Byproduct gas 131,026,575,000 " " Natural gas 795,110,376,000 " "

In 1914 there were 38,705,496 barrels (each fifty gallons) of illuminating oils refined in this country and the value was $96,806,452. About half of this quantity was exported. In 1914 the value of all candles manufactured in this country was about $2,000,000, which was about half that of the candles manufactured in 1909 and in 1904. In 1914 the value of the matches manufactured in this country was $12,556,000. This has increased steadily from $429,000 in 1849. In 1914 the glass industries in this country made 7,000,000 lamps, 70,000,000 chimneys, 16,300,000 lantern globes, 24,000,000 shades, globes, and other gas goods. Many millions of other lighting accessories were made, but unfortunately they are not classified.

Some figures pertaining to public electric light and power stations of the United States for the years 1907 and 1917 are as follows:

1917 1907 Number of establishments 6,541 4,714 Commercial 4,224 3,462 Municipal 2,317 1,562 Income $526,886,408 $175,642,338 Total horse-power of plants 12,857,998 4,098,188 Steam engines 8,389,389 2,693,273 Internal combustion engines 217,186 55,828 Water-wheels 4,251,423 1,349,087 Kilowatt capacity of generators 9,001,872 2,709,225 Output in millions of kilowatt-hours 25,438 5,863 Motors served (horse-power) 9,216,323 1,649,026 Electric-arc street-lamps served 256,838 .... Electric-filament street-lamps served 1,389,382 ....

In general, there is a large increase in the various items during the decade represented. The output of the central stations doubled in the five years from 1907 to 1912, and doubled again in the next five years from 1912 to 1917. Street lamps were not reported in 1907, but in 1912 there were 348,643 arc-lamps served by the public companies. The number of arc-lamps decreased to 256,838 in 1917. On the other hand, there were 681,957 electric filament street lamps served in 1912, which doubled in number to 1,389,382 in 1917. The cost of construction and equipment of these central stations totaled more than $3,000,000,000 in 1917.

Although there is no immediate prospect of the failure of the coal and oil supplies, exhaustion is surely approaching. And as the supplies of fuel for the production of gas and electricity diminish, the cost of lighting may advance. The total amount of oil available in the known oil-fields of this country at the present time has been estimated by various experts between 5,000,000,000 and 20,000,000,000 barrels, the best estimate being about 7,000,000,000. The annual consumption is now about 400,000,000 barrels. These figures do not take into account the oil which may be distilled from the rich shale deposits. Apparently this source will yield a hundred billion barrels of oil. In a similar manner the coal-supply is diminishing and the consumption is increasing. In 1918 more than a half-billion tons of coal were shipped from the mines. The production of natural gas perhaps has reached its peak, and, owing to its relation to the coal and oil deposits, its supply is limited.

Although only a fraction of the total production of gas, oil, and coal is used in lighting, the limited supply of these products emphasizes the desirability of developing the enormous water-power resources of this country. The present generation will not be hard pressed by the diminution of the supply of gas, oil, and coal, but it can profit by encouraging and even demanding the development of water-power. Furthermore, it is an obligation to succeeding generations to harness the rivers and even the tides and waves in order that the other resources will be conserved as long as possible. Science will continue to produce more efficient light-sources, but the cost of light finally is dependent upon the cost of the energy supplied to these lamps. At the present time water-power is the anchor to the windward.

XVII

LIGHT AND SAFETY

It is established that outdoors life and property are at night safer under adequate lighting than they are under inadequate lighting. Police departments in the large cities will testify that street-lighting is a powerful ally and that crime is fostered by darkness. But in reckoning the cost of street-lighting to-day how many take into account the value of safety to life and property and the saving occasioned by the reduction in the police-force necessary to patrol the cities and towns? Owing to the necessity of darkening the streets in order to reduce the hazards of air-raids, London experienced a great increase in accidents on the streets, which demonstrated the practical value of street-lighting from the standpoint of accident prevention.

During the war, when dastardly traitors and agents of the enemy were striking at industry, the value of lighting was further recognized by the industries, with the result that flood-lighting was installed to protect them. By common consent this new phase was termed "protective lighting." Soon after the entrance of this country into the recent war, the U. S. Military Intelligence established a Section of Plant Protection which had thirty-three district offices during the war and gave attention to thirty-five thousand industrial plants engaged in production of war materials. Protective lighting was early recognized by this section as a very potential agency for defense, and extensive use was made of it. For example, Edmund Leigh, chief of the section, in discussing the value of outdoor lighting stated:

An illustration of our work in this connection is the case of an $80,000,000 powder plant of recent construction. We arranged to have all wires buried. In addition to the ordinary lighting on an adjacent hill there is a large searchlight which will command any part of the buildings and grounds. Every three hundred yards there is a watch-tower with a searchlight on top. These searchlights are for use only in emergency. Each tower has a telephone service, one connected with the other. The men in the towers have a view of the building exteriors, which are all well lighted, and the men in the buildings look across the yard to the lighted fence line and so get a silhouette of persons or objects in between. The most vital parts of the buildings are surrounded by three fences. In the near-by woods the underbrush has been cleared out and destroyed. The trunks and limbs of trees have been whitewashed. No one can walk among these trees or between the trees and the plant without being seen in silhouette.... I say flatly that I know nothing that is so potential for good defense as good illumination and at the same time so little understood.

Without such protective lighting an army of men would have been required to insure the safety of this one vital plant; still it is obvious that the cost of the protective lighting was an insignificant part of the value of the plant which it insured against damage and destruction.

The United States participated for nineteen months in the recent war and during that time about 400,000 casualties were suffered by its forces. This was at the rate of about 250,000 per year, which included casualties in battle, at sea, and from sickness, wounds, and accidents. Every one has felt the magnitude of this rate of casualties because either his home or that of a friend was blighted by one or more of these tragedies in the nineteen months. However, R. E. Simpson of the Travelers Insurance Company has stated that:

During a one-year period in this country the number of accidents due to inadequate or improper lighting exceeds the yearly rate of our war casualties.

This is a startling comparison, which emphasizes a phase of lighting that has long been recognized by experts but has been generally ignored by the industries and by the public. The condition doubtless is due largely to a lag in the proper utilization of artificial lighting behind the rapid increase in congestion in the industries and in public places.

Accident prevention is an important phase of modern life which must receive more attention. From published statistics and conservative estimates it has been concluded that there are approximately 25,000 persons killed or permanently disabled, 500,000 seriously injured, and 1,000,000 slightly injured each year in this country. Translating these figures by means of the accident severity rates, Mr. Simpson has found that there is a total of 180,000,000 days of time lost per year. This is equivalent to the loss of services of 600,000 men for a full year of 300 work-days. This loss is distributed over the entire country and consequently its magnitude is not demonstrated excepting by statistics. Of course, the causes of the accidents are numerous, but, among the means of prevention, proper lighting is important.

According to some authorities at least 18 per cent. of these accidents are due to defects in lighting. On this basis the services of 108,000 men as producers and wage-earners are continually lost at the present time because the lighting is not sufficient or proper for the safety of workers. If the full year's labor of 108,000 men could be applied to the mining of coal, 130,000,000 million tons of coal would be added to the yearly output; and only 10,000 tons would be necessary to supply adequate lighting for this army of men working for a full year for ten hours each day.

Statistics obtained under the British workmen's compensation system show that 25 per cent. of the accidents were caused by inadequate lighting of industrial plants.

Much has been said and actually done regarding the saving of fuel by curtailing lighting, but the saving may easily be converted into a great loss. For example, a 25-watt electric lamp may be operated ten hours a day for a whole year at the expense of one eighth of a ton of coal. Suppose this lamp to be over a stairway or at any vital point and that by extinguishing it there occurs a single accident which involves the loss of only one day's work on the part of the worker. If this one day's time could have produced coal, there would have been enough coal mined in the ten hours to operate the lamp for thirty-two years. The insignificant cost of lighting is also shown by the distribution of the consumption of fuel for heating, cooking, and lighting in the home. Of the total amount of fuel consumed in the home for these purposes, 87 per cent. is for heating, 11 per cent. for cooking and 2 per cent. for lighting. The amount of coal used for lighting purposes in general is about 2.5 per cent. of the total consumption of coal, so it is seen that the curtailment of lighting at best cannot save much fuel; and it may actually result in a great economic loss. By replacing inefficient lamps and accessories with efficient lighting-equipment and by washing windows and artificial lighting devices, a real saving can be realized.

Improper lighting may be as productive of accidents as inadequate lighting, and throughout the industries and upon the streets the misuse of light is in evidence. The blinding effect of a brilliant light-source is easily proved by looking at the sun. After a few moments great discomfort is experienced, and on looking away from this brilliant source the eyes are temporarily blinded by the after-images. When this happens in a factory as the result of gazing into an unshielded light-source, the workman may be injured by moving machinery, by stumbling over objects, and in many other ways. Unshaded light-sources are too prevalent in the industries. Improper lighting is likely to cause deep shadows wherein many dangers may be hidden. On the street the glare from automobile head-lamps is very prevalent and nearly everybody may testify from experience to the dangers of glare. Even the glaring locomotive head-lamp has been responsible for many casualties.