Grand Rapids was the second city in the United States to light the city with large scale electric lighting in 1884. This required use of a very new technology known as the arc light. The arc light (or “electric candle”) was invented and demonstrated at the beginning of the 19th century in England where it was discovered that a blinding white “Arc” of light was produced by hooking up two charcoal rods to a battery, and bringing them very close together.
At the end of the 1870s, gas and oil lights had conquered the streets of many cities, but arc lamps were brighter, cheaper and safer and didn’t require every lamp to be individually hand lit and extinguished every night.
A typical arc light of the time could produce a light of 6,000 candlepower. (equivalent to 43 100-watt bulbs). At the time this was a spectacular feat, because the brightest gas and oil lamps were around 20 candlepower.
Paris first demonstrated Arc Lights for large scale illumination as part of the fair of 1877.
In 1881, the council of Grand Rapids had authorized a test of electric tower lights by the GR Electric Light and Power Co. They put an addition of one hundred feet on the top of the fire alarm bell tower near the corner of Pearl and Ottawa Sts. (straight across the river from the hide). The council decided not to adopt the tower system but reversed their decision three years later.
Corner of Pearl and Ottawa
In 1882, Detroit paved the way for the U.S. placing 122 towers at heights up to 180 feet, and installed arc lights in clusters of 4, 6 and 8 lights per tower, effectively lighting 21 square miles of the city.
In 1884 forty of Detroit’s towers were purchased second-hand and Grand Rapids joined the progressive electric light movement, installing their own "moonlight towers." They served the city for over 30 years.
Moonlight Tower in Grand Rapids
Detroit also sold 31 towers to Austin, Texas where some still stand today.
Downtown Austin, TX
The tower lighting system really met it’s demise by the arrival of ever higher buildings. The first decades of the 20th century were the era of the skyscraper, and those buildings were incompatible with moonlight towers as they blocked the light that would otherwise be cast on the streets below. The use of smaller arc lamps to light intersections and parks however were still in use through the 1950's when Incandescent (modern light bulb) lighting took over
Arc lamps even from the 1900’s were so efficient at producing light from electricity that they still compete with today's new compact fluorescent (CFI) lights 100 years later. The technology of the arc light is also found in today’s searchlights (many of which are still carbon arc lights), Xenon arc lights (found in some Torche lamp bulbs), neon lights, and the arc light laid the foundation for arc welding.
Carbon Arc Searchlight
The cache is a camoed lock&lock box with a large hook. Approach from the grass side – near, but not on, the sign. Cache is hidden with permission of the museum and security knows it’s there. There is also now an exhibit inside about the Moonlight Towers.