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| Before incandescent lamps, gas lighting was used in cities. The earliest lamp fixed lanterns required a lamplighter to tour the town at dusk, lighting each of the lanterns. Later ignition devices that would automatically strike the flame when the gas supply was activated. The first electric street lantern used a carbon arc lamp employing alternating current, which ensured that both electrodes were consumed at equal rates. An array of arc lamps were used to light Holborn Viaduct and the Thames Embankment in London. This was the the first electric street lighting in Britain. The first street in the UK to be lit by electric light was Mosley Street, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The street was lit by Joseph Swan's incandescent lamp on the 3rd February, 1879. Today, street lighting commonly uses high-intensity discharge lamps, often high pressure sodium lamps. |
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