Salt Lake's first electric lights wowed the crowd
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On a Thursday night 144 years ago, Salt Lakers crowded onto Main Street to see "a new light, such a feeds the torches of the fixed stars and marks their courses through the fathomless ocean whose billions roll shoreless through space" — which is how the Salt Lake Tribune described Utah's first fully functioning electric streetlights.
- This is Old News, where we feel our way back through the dark days of Utah's past until we reach the earliest of commands: "Let there be light."
What drove the news: Three outdoor bulbs were placed near the Walker Brothers' store for the big debut.
- Another 30-some bulbs were placed in adjacent houses, stores and saloons.
The intrigue: They had tried out the lights the night before, but they didn't work.
- In the words of Edison himself: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
Yes, but: On March 31, 1881, they clicked.
- "A faint blue spark was seen to appear simultaneously in these three outdoor globes, and in a few seconds they had developed into the most beautiful and brightest of lights illuminating quite a large radius on the streets and sidewalks," rhapsodized the Salt Lake Herald.
- "A murmur of admiration ran through the wondering crowd as the dazzling light poured upon them," the Herald continued. "The light is brilliant, almost beyond description."
The other side: "Of course, the crowd had much to say regarding it, and there were objections, the only one finding any general response being that it was that it actually gave too much light," the Herald recounted. "Whether this can be a fault as a question or it may arise from the public not being accustomed to it, which, admitting the surmise to be justly founded, will wear away with association."
- "Others said it gave them a headache."
Stunning stat: Salt Lake City would become the fifth city in the world to install centrally-operated electric street lights.