Profile America: Lighting Up the Night In Wabash

LIGHTING UP THE NIGHT

 

Wednesday, March 23 —  The first town in America to have its streets illuminated by electric lights wasn’t one of the familiar, Eastern metropolises that loom in our history. That distinction instead went to the north-central Indiana town of Wabash, late this month in 1880. Wabash had a population of just 3,800 Hoosiers in 1880, so it took only four 3,000-candlepower arc lamps on the county courthouse to light the streets. By newspaper accounts, witnesses were awestruck by the modern wonder. Now, the 10,400 residents of Wabash are as blasé as the rest of us. Arc lights have long been eclipsed by our more familiar energy-efficient products. From incandescent to halogen to light-emitting diodes, some 2 billion light bulbs are sold annually in the U.S.

 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Print Friendly, PDF & Email