Charles F. Brush and the First
Public
Electric Street Lighting System
in America
By MEL GORMAN*
THE DEVELOPMENT OF street lighting is
one of the most
important factors which can be
considered in gauging the
social history of urban life. Until the
middle of the eighteenth
century there was very little incentive
for the dweller to
leave his house after dark, but with
the advent of the indus-
trial revolution the tempo of life
exerted more and more pres-
sure of activities which could not be
completed in the daylight
hours. By the end of the first decade
of the nineteenth cen-
tury the demand for better street
lighting had resulted in
the installation of gas lamps. But the
most spectacular break-
through in the entire history of street
lighting came in the
form of the dazzlingly brilliant
electric arc light. Within a
few years after its commercial
introduction in the late 1870's,
both large cities and small towns
provided at least their
main thoroughfares with the new
electrical illumination.
There was a notable diminution of
accidents at night to per-
sons, horses, and vehicles. But the
most salutary benefit
derived from the decrease in crime. A
contemporary cartoon
symbolizes the light as a policeman
dispersing a band of
thugs carrying the devil on their
shoulders. The legend reads:
"Crime has no bosom for the bright
rays of the mid-day sun,
but revels amidst the shadows of night.
The electric arc
* Mel Gorman is a professor of chemistry
at the University of San Francisco.
CHARLES F. BRUSH 129
turns the night to day, tears off the
cloak of darkness, and
thief and thug skulk to their dens."1
The man whose inven-
tive genius was responsible for this
contribution to urban
civilization in the United States was
Charles Francis Brush,
and the locale of his accomplishment
was the city of Cleveland.
Charles Brush was born on the family's
Walnut Hills Farm
near Euclid, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on
March 17, 1849.
His father was Isaac Elbert Brush, a
manufacturer of woolen
goods in Orange County, New York, prior
to 1848, when he
emigrated to Euclid to engage in
farming. His mother was
Delia Williams (Phillips) Brush. Both
sides of his family
were of English origin, his father
having been a descendant
of Thomas Brush, a settler who arrived
in America in the
early 1650's and made his home in
Southhold, Suffolk County,
New York. His mother's line owed its
origin in this country
to the Rev. George Phillips of the
Episcopalian Church, who
landed with Governor Winthrop and
established himself near
Boston in 1630.2
As a boy, Charles did not spend much of
his free time
roaming the fields and woods, hunting
and fishing, or riding
his favorite horse, in the manner of
the typical farm boy. His
father, perceiving an inventive bent,
had allowed him to build
a workshop, and here young Brush
preferred to pass his time
after the completion of his daily
chores. He gathered all kinds
of scrap metal, jars, wire, and
discarded pieces of farm equip-
ment, and with these his mechanical
aptitude became apparent.
One of his first constructions was a
velocipede made of two
wheels from a baby carriage and another from a thrashing
1 The cartoon is reproduced in the
National Electric Light Association Bulletin,
XII (1925), 96.
The author wishes to acknowledge with
gratitude the assistance in the prepara-
tion of this article provided by Dr.
Charles B. Sawyer of Cleveland and the
librarians of the Western Reserve
Historical Society, Cleveland, the Cleveland
Public Library, the General Electric
Company at Nela Park, Cleveland, the
University of California, and the
University of San Francisco.
2
National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, XXI (1931), 1; undated news
release, Capital Press Bureau,
Washington, D.C.
130
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
machine.3 At an early
age he evinced a passionate interest in
scientific literature. In his own
words, "From early boyhood
I was an omnivorous reader of
scientific literature. Such parts
of astronomy, chemistry, and physics as
I could understand
were a never-ending source of delight.
I also constructed
much crude apparatus--telescopes,
microscopes, and photo-
graphic appliances."4
Brush's formal education had begun in
the Wickliffe, Ohio,
public school, and was continued at the
age of thirteen in the
Shaw Academy at Collamer, Ohio. There
he devised his first
static machine and battery and experimented
with them.5
Early in 1864 he entered the Cleveland
high school, and from
this time his mechanical and scientific
genius fairly blossomed
in many directions. He made such
instruments as Leyden
jars, electromagnets, induction coils,
and motors. But there
was one device whose textbook
descriptions filled him with the
greatest fascination. This was the
electric arc, whose dazzling
brilliance and intense heat were really
awe-inspiring. Charles
would never be content until he had
made one of these with his
own hands, but the project was a
difficult one, on which he
labored long and arduously. Finally he
met with success, and
one day in 1865 his workshop on the
farm was lighted with a
brightness which theretofore had seemed
to be an unattainable
goal.6 Little did the
fledging experimenter realize that this
demonstration was the harbinger of his
own successful career
and the forerunner of a mighty
industry. Reports from
3 Interview with Charles Brush,
Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 30, 1926.
4 Charles F. Brush, "The Arc
Light," Century Magazine, LXX (1905), 110-118.
The quotation is on p. 112. This article
is of prime importance, not only as a bio-
graphical source but also from the
standpoint of are lighting history. The original
manuscript is in the possession of Dr.
Charles B. Sawyer of Cleveland. Earlier,
Brush had delivered a brief and informal
address, "The Early History of Arc
Lighting," before the Cleveland
Electric Light Association, February 19, 1895,
which was published as a one-page
article in the Electrical World, XXV (1895),
260.
5 S. Winifred Smith, "Charles
Francis Brush, Inventor," Museum Echoes (Ohio
Historical Society), XXVIII (1955), 59.
6 Gertrude Hassler, "Chronology
of the Life of Charles F. Brush," January
1955, a typescript in the library of the
Western Reserve Historical Society,
Cleveland.
CHARLES F. BRUSH 131
Europe on improved dynamos and arc
lights whetted his ap-
petite for this subject even more, so
that as a climax to his
secondary school career he delivered in
1867 a graduation dis-
course on the origin of artificial
light from sunlight, through
the sequence of plant life, coal,
steam, and electricity.
Before proceeding, it will be
profitable to examine the stage
of development in electrical science as
it pertained to the ex-
periments which were being conducted by
Brush. The story
begins with Volta's discovery of the
electric battery in 1796
and his announcement of it in a note to
the Royal Society of
London in 1800. Immediately scientists
began all types of
investigations on the physical and
chemical effects of this new
source of electricity. Within a short
time, a number of investi-
gators had observed that if the two
terminals of a battery
were connected by wires to two sticks
of carbon initially in
contact, and then the carbons were
pulled apart slightly, an
intensely brilliant light filled the
gap. The light would be con-
tinuous until the carbons wasted away
or the battery ran
down. If the carbons were placed in a
horizontal position, the
lighted area assumed the form of a bow
or arc, hence the
name arc light. With the building of
larger batteries, the elec-
tric arc became the featured display at
public scientific lec-
tures.7
Many electricians attempted battery
powered arc lighting
of individual indoor and outdoor
installations, and although
the light was satisfactory, the
ventures were unsuccessful
economically due to the prohibitive expense
of the batteries.8
Thus Brush, by repeating the type of
experiment done by
scores of predecessors, had placed
himself, while still a high
school boy, in a tradition whose course
was to lead him even-
tually to important electrical
developments.
Brush matriculated at the University of
Michigan in Sep-
tember 1867. Without doubt he would
have enrolled in elec-
7 C. Mackechnie Jarvis, "The Generation of Electricity," in
Charles Singer and
others, eds., A History of Technology
(Oxford, England, 1954-58), V, 177-178.
8 C. Mackechnie Jarvis, "History
of Electrical Engineering," Journal of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers, New Series, I (1955), 151-152.
132
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
trical engineering, if such a
curriculum had existed then, but
he had to forego his immediate interest
in electricity to con-
centrate on some study whose completion
would qualify him
to become established in a recognized
profession. So he de-
cided to become a mining engineer, and
completed his course
of studies in 1869, one year ahead of
his class. However, on
returning to Cleveland he turned to
chemistry, rather than
mining, and set up an analytical and
consulting laboratory.
Unfortunately industry was not as yet
developed enough to
require any extensive services of
chemists, and the laboratory
did not prove to be profitable. So at
last in 1873 he decided to
make use of his mining education by
becoming a commission
merchant, in partnership with C. E.
Bingham, dealing in iron
ore and pig iron.9
Brush could not remain away very long
from experimenta-
tion. So while engaged in purely
business pursuits as a matter
of livelihood, he began in his spare
time to renew his interest
in electricity, in particular in the
industrial possibilities of the
dynamo as a source of current.10
His thoughts along these
lines were crystallized by a
conversation with George W.
Stockley. At that time Stockley was
vice president and man-
ager of the Telegraph Supply Company of
Cleveland.11 Brush
and Stockley were old friends and
frequently met in the com-
pany office, and as often as not the
conversation turned to
electricity. On one such occasion early
in 1876 Brush re-
marked that he thought he could build a
more efficient dynamo
than the Gramme machine, which was very
popular in Europe.
Stockley was elated at this prospect,
and an informal agree-
ment was made whereby Brush would
continue to work on
his ideas at his leisure, with the
Telegraph Supply Company
9
Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States (Boston,
1900-1903), I,
462.
10 Brush, "The Arc Light,"
113.
11 J. H. Kennedy, "The Brush
Electric Light--The History of a Cleveland
Enterprise," Magazine of Western
History, III (1885), 135-136. This company
was founded as the Cleveland Telegraph
Supply and Manufacturing Company in
1872, with George B. Hicks as president.
It was reorganized and incorporated
under the laws of the state of Ohio on
October 19, 1875, under the corporate title
of the Telegraph Supply Company.
CHARLES F BRUGH
furnishing machine-shop facilities and
castings for fashioning
the necessary parts.12
Brush probably had his invention fairly
well worked out in his mind, and in a
short time he had com-
pleted the drawings for a dynamo of his
own design, quite
different from any in contemporary use.
He shipped the parts
and the necessary copper wire to Walnut
Hills Farm, and
there in the summer of 1876, in the
very workshop of his
boyhood days, he wound the armature and
field magnet, and
assembled the dynamo. Would it meet his
expectations?
Brush provides an answer in his
description of the first
testing.
The day of the trial was a memorable one
for me. I belted the dynamo
to an old "horse-power" used
for sawing wood, and attached a team of
horses. After a little coaxing with a
single cell of battery to give an
initial excitation to the field-magnets,
the machine suddenly "took hold,"
and nearly stalled the horses. It was an
exciting moment, followed by
many others of eager experiment. That
was my first acquaintance with
a dynamo.13
He then brought the dynamo to the
Telegraph Supply Com-
pany's factory at 130-134 Champlain
Street, one block south
of the Public Square.14 It
was connected by belt to a steam en-
gine, and by wire to an arc lamp, and
the latter emitted a bril-
liant light. The demonstration was
eminently successful.
Shortly thereafter he invented an arc
light specifically designed
for his dynamo. For any properly
functioning arc light, the
separation of the carbon rods had to be
at a constant dis-
tance. But under the intense heat, and
since the carbons were
not sealed off from the air in any
manner, the tips of the
carbons burned away, and some feed
mechanism had to be
provided to keep the gap correctly
adjusted. Most arc lamps
at this period had carbon regulators
which were too compli-
cated and too cumbersome for economic
success. Brush con-
12
Ibid., 134.
13 Brush, "The Arc Light," 113.
14
Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery ... of the State of Ohio
(Cincinnati, 1883-95), III, 724;
Robison, Savage, Cleveland Directory for 1876-
77, p. 603.
134
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
trived an ingeniously simple and compact
electromagnetic de-
vice which actuated an ordinary metal
washer, which in turn
caused the carbons to maintain a
self-regulated distance apart,
even though they burned at the rate of
two inches an hour.
Brush had a desire to acquaint the
public with the utility
of his dynamo as a source of electricity
for lighting, and he
chose to do so in an informal and
unusual way.
I well remember the time when the arc
light was first exhibited here,
the first arc light ever seen in
Cleveland that was operated from a
dynamo. It was shown from a second story
window on the south side
of the Public Square. That was in the
autumn of 1876, just after the
Centennial. The light was a very small
one, of course, but it was con-
centrated by a parabolic reflector. The
occasion was one of a parade of
horsemen and foot soldiers, and all that
sort of thing, and the light was
thrown in their faces as they came up
the street. I remember how the
eyes of the horses looked like green
balls of light. I do not know how
well the horses liked it. They did not
seem to care for it very much.
After a while a big policeman came up
and said, "Put out that damn
light!"15
The year 1877 marked a number of
important events in
Brush's life. In March, after agreement
with Stockley, he
signed a contract with the Telegraph
Supply Company, which
provided that the latter would have
exclusive title to manu-
facture and sell under all his future
patents, in return for
royalties.16 On April 24 his dynamo was registered with
patent number 189,997. Sometime in the
latter half of the
year he severed his connection with Bingham in
order to
devote all of his time to electrical
invention. But the most
portentous occasion of all occurred in
Philadelphia. The
15 Charles Brush, "The Development of Electric Street Lighting," Journal
of
the Cleveland Engineering Society, IX (1916), 55. Presumably the second story
window was that of the office of the
Telegraph Supply Company, which Robison,
Savage's Cleveland Directory for
1876-77 lists as 40 Public Square. The dynamo
was in the factory on Champlain Street, just a short
block to the rear (south)
of the building on the square, which
made it convenient for stringing wire to the
light. The parade probably was a
torchlight election parade. Although the daily
press reports a number of such events, I
could not find any mention of Brush's
uninvited performance.
16 George W. Stockley, "Some
Early Arc Lighting Experiences," Electrical
Review (New York), XXXVIII (1901), 66.
Franklin Institute had become
interested in purchasing a
dynamo for fundamental research, and
invited builders to
send in one of their machines for testing.17
The Telegraph
Supply Company forwarded two Brush
dynamos and arc
lights. Two other machines, the Gramme
and the Wallace-
Farmer, were received. The latter also
was accompanied by
lights. Experiment "quickly
established the suitability of the
Brush lamp."18 After
thorough photometric, mechanical, and
electrical testing, the institute's
committee in charge of the
trials concluded that "the small
Brush machine . . . or the
large Brush machine ... is . . . the
best adapted for the pur-
poses of the Institute."19
This favorable appraisal by an inde-
pendent and widely renowned scientific
institute had the effect
of raising Brush to the point of
highest possible prestige
among the ever increasing numbers of
electricians who were
trying to develop a new branch of
industry.
The arc light was admirably suited for
the lighting of
fairly large stores and factories. But
the owners of such
establishments would not be impressed
by the scientific proofs
of the Franklin Institute. They would
have to be shown, and
this could be done most expeditiously
by exhibiting at the
various industrial fairs, which were so
popular at the time.
So Brush displayed his dynamo and
lights at the exhibition
of the American Institute in New York,
September 11-No-
vember 23, 1878, and at the Mechanics
Fair in Boston, Octo-
ber 1878. As a result, individual plants
were purchased by
stores in Brooklyn,20 Boston,21
and Philadelphia.22 These
17
Journal of the Franklin Institute, CIV
(1877), :145-146.
18
Ibid., CV (1878), 296.
19 Ibid., CV (1878), 377.
These dynamo tests were significant in themselves,
inasmuch as they were the first in the
world to be conducted. On April 18, 1928,
the institute held exercises in
celebration of the semi-centennial of the tests. Brush
gave a speech, "Some Reminiscences
of Early Electric Lighting," which was pub-
lished in the Journal of the Franklin
Institute, CCVI (1928), 3-15. It is prac-
tically verbatim from the article, "The
Arc Light," published many years pre-
viously in the Century Magazine, from
which I have quoted several times above.
20 Marsden Perry, in the Electrical
World, XVII (1891), 157.
21 Alton Adams, "The First
Electric Light Plant in Boston," ibid., XXXVI
(1900), 954.
22 Brush, "The Arc Light,"
114.
136
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
early commercial installations were
simple and reliable light-
ing systems. Each dynamo supplied
electricity to no more
than four lamps. Each lamp had its own
set of parallel wires
connecting it to the dynamo, and hence
if one light became
defective the others operated normally
and the speed of the
dynamo did not have to be regulated.
However, Brush was
aware that for competition with gas
lighting he would have
to increase the number of lights per
dynamo and decrease the
amount of conducting wires per lamp.
Yet he did not confine
his vision to establishments of
moderate dimensions, but pro-
jected in his mind the lighting of the
largest buildings and
such outdoor areas as railway stations,
docks, and streets.
The directors and officers of the
Telegraph Supply Com-
pany had confidence in their inventor,
as indicated by the
removal of their factory in the latter
portion of 1878 to a
four-story building at 145 St. Clair
Street near Ontario
Street.23 Brush did not disappoint
them. He resolved to sim-
plify his system by having only one set
of wires for all the
lights, and to increase the number of
lights in the circuit.
This concept involved two problems. The
dynamo had to be
stepped up in capacity, and each light
had to have a device
which would allow the current to
by-pass it in case some
defect prevented the electricity from
going through the car-
bons, for otherwise, if one light went
out, all would be extin-
guished. The dynamo was improved in
more or less routine
fashion, but the solution to the light
problem was nothing
short of electrical genius. Brush's
light, it will be recalled,
effected a constant carbon separation
by means of an electro-
magnet. So Brush connected the latter
to another electro-
magnet and a spring resistance, and
this arrangement (a
shunt coil) acted as a switch the
moment any derangement of
the carbons occurred, automatically
taking the current past
the useless carbons, and on to all the
other lights. As ex-
pressed modestly by Brush himself:
23 Kennedy, "The Brush Electric
Light," 136; Robison, Savage, Cleveland
Directory for 1877-78,
p. 594.
CHARLES F. BRUSH 137
The year of which I am
speaking--1878--was memorable in the
history of electric lighting. It was during that year
that I had the great
pleasure and good fortune to invent and
develop and commercially intro-
duce the modern series arc lamp with the
shunt coil. It was this inven-
tion ... which first made arc lighting
from central stations commercially
possible, and I think it may justly be
considered as marking the birth
of the electric lighting industry of the
world today.24
This was no fond appraisal by an
inventor of his own crea-
tion. The technical literature contains
many statements of
qualified electrical engineers who pay
tribute to Brush as
the innovator of commercial lighting.25
As the year 1878 was drawing to a close,
Brush felt con-
fident that his system was ready for a
large scale installation.
Accordingly, early in 1879 he and the
officers of the Tele-
graph Supply Company proposed to the
board of park com-
missioners of Cleveland that the Public
Square and its streets
be lighted by electricity. The board
communicated this infor-
mation to the city council on January 27,
1879. A special
committee was appointed to investigate,
and recommended
that a contract be signed between the
city and the Telegraph
Supply Company governing the conditions
for lighting the
square and its streets. The essential
features of the contract
included doubling the amount of light
compared to gas, and
this to be accomplished at a lower
price, one dollar per hour,
and cancellation in three months if the
lights proved unsatis-
factory. On March 10, 1879, the contract
was signed by the
officers of the Telegraph Supply Company
and the committee
on gas of the city council.26
Within two months, poles for twelve
lights were placed
24 Charles Brush, "Early History
of Arc Lighting," Electrical World, XXV
(1895), 260.
25 For example, see S. M. Hamill,
"The Beginning and Future of the Arc Lamp,"
Engineering Magazine, VII (1894), 703, and Charles T. Child, "The First
Century
of Electricity," Electrical
Review (New York), XXXVIII (1901), 36.
26 Details of the negotiations are
in the City Council Proceedings, January 7,
1878 to April 21, 1879, pp. 287 and 315,
and in the Annual Report of the Board
of Park Commissioners, 1879, pp. 29-33.
These documents are in the Western
Reserve Historical Society library. An
original copy of the contract is in posses-
sion of Dr. Charles B. Sawyer of
Cleveland.
138 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in the square, and wires strung from
the dynamo at the St.
Clair Street plant. The formal
commencement for the lighting
was scheduled for Tuesday, April 29,
1879, but a preliminary
testing of the system was conducted on
the previous Saturday
at 10:00 P.M. City officers and
Saturday night frequenters
of the square were treated to a scene
of intense brilliance.
Representatives of the press agreed
that the gas street lights,
which were not extinguished during the
trial, looked sickly.
In contrast with the arc lights
"the gas lamps looked like they
were attacked with jaundice."27
To another reporter the gas
lamps suggested a different symptom,
since they looked
"really dyspeptic."28
The trial proceeded without a hitch, and
all was in readiness for the grand
event on the following
Tuesday.
Public interest had been whetted while
the poles and wires
were being put in place, and the press
had been carrying
accounts of progress. Anticipation of
the official exhibition
was at a high pitch, and everybody was
looking forward to
being a witness of a historical event.
Ladies and gentlemen
in all their finery, best carriages,
and finest teams converged
on the square. Horse-cars bound for
downtown were crowded
with excursionists, and a carnival
atmosphere prevailed. Long
before lighting time, men, women, and
children of all ages
thronged the Public Square and all
streets leading to it. The
crowd was happy, noisy, restless, and
enthusiastic, and at
times gave the police some anxious
moments. It surged back
and forth on the streets and walks of
the square, at times
all but drowning the strains of Gray's
Band playing on the
music pavilion. At Lakeview Park, a
cannon was firing into
the lake at intervals. The whole scene
resembled a Fourth
of July celebration. At eight o'clock
the gas lights were ex-
tinguished, the switch was thrown, and
from twelve orna-
mental poles symmetrically situated
throughout the square
there shone forth a dazzling, sun-like
brilliance. The crowd
27
The Penny Press (Cleveland).
April 28, 1879.
28 Cleveland Herald. April 28, 1879.
CHARLES E. BRUSH 139
let out a scream of pleasure, then
stared in astonished amaze-
ment, and finally gave way to
expressions of awe and won-
derment. Notwithstanding the intense
brightness, the people
clustered as closely as possible around
the poles to gaze di-
rectly at the lights, which were hung
fifteen feet above
ground level. A few provident
individuals had equipped them-
selves with colored spectacles or
smoked glass. Some brought
newspapers to test visibility for
reading, and found that
even at 150 feet from the nearest post
the print was still
legible. Everybody noticed that the
rays not only illuminated
Ontario and Superior Streets within the
square, but penetrated
for blocks along these thoroughfares,
making it easy to rec-
ognize familiar landmarks, such as the
high bridge west on
Superior. The fountains shimmered and
sparkled in a dia-
mond-like display which could never be
produced by the
feeble gas lights. All in all, the
night of April 29, 1879, in
and about the Public Square of
Cleveland, looked like a day
to remember.29
Brush's initial large-scale enterprise
was a triumph. As the
ioneer of the first public street lighting
in America,30 he
found himself among the foremost
electricians in the world,
a reputation well deserved. He
experimented very little, rely-
ing on the rare faculty of being able
to construct mentally
any apparatus down to the most minute
detail, so that his
first drawing of the design was the
final one, and the actual
apparatus when built seldom needed any
modification.31 His
was the sole creative mind in the
Telegraph Supply Company.
As he recalled many years later:
In the very early years of electric
lighting mine was strictly a "one-
man" laboratory. I had no
assistant; indeed no assistant was available.
I made all the working drawings for the
dynamos, lamps and special
shop appliances needed. Wrote all the
patent specifications. Tested and
29 This description is based on accounts in the Cleveland Herald,
Cleveland
Plain Dealer, The Penny Press, and the Cleveland Leader, April 30, 1879, and
in the articles by Brush in references 4
and 15.
30 Scientific American, XL (1879), 329.
31 Kennedy, "The Brush Electric
Light," 140.
140
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
adjusted all dynamos and lamps. No time
was wasted in superfluous
sleep or recreation.32
He received an honorary Ph.D. from
Western Reserve Uni-
versity. The company, seeking to
capitalize on its inventor's
rising reputation, changed its name to
the Brush Electric
Company on August 19, 1880.33 The
change was appropriate
anyway, because by this time the
company had ceased making
telegraphic equipment, due to the
volume of dynamo and light
business.34
The enthusiastic acclaim of Brush and
the Cleveland street
lighting system was by no means a
purely local affair. This
was far different from such events of
limited importance as
the installing of arc lights in a
Philadelphia department store
or a New England textile mill, as well
as from the tests con-
ducted by the Franklin Institute for a
group of specialists.
Both the scale of operations and the
large numbers of the
public affected by this innovation were
unprecedented. The
fact that a municipal body was party to
the contract provided
an aura of official sanction. Because
of these attendant cir-
cumstances, news of the Cleveland
enterprise was dissemi-
nated widely in newspapers, popular
magazines, and electrical
and engineering journals, both in
America and abroad. One
of the most interesting comments
originated in Paris, where
street lighting had been introduced in
1878. The Cleveland
Herald of April 30, 1879, had made a comparison of the
Cleveland and Paris operations and
showed that the latter
was decidedly inferior. In the July 15,
1879, edition of La
Lumiere Electrique, the editor summarized the Herald's re-
port and then commented that the
Cleveland claims of eco-
nomic electric lighting were
exaggerations and that it was
32
Brush, "Some Reminiscences of Early Electric Lighting," 14.
33 Certificate of Amendment to Articles
of Incorporation, August 19, 1880.
Secretary of State's Office, Columbus.
34 For a generally good account of Brush and the Brush Electric Company,
see
Harold C. Passer, The Electrical
Manufacturers, 1875-1900 (Cambridge, Mass.,
1953), Chapter 2. But if the statement
on p. 19, "The Cleveland experiment had
no immediate results in terms of . . . a
contract with the city" [sic!] were true,
this article could not have been
written.
CHARLES F. BRUSH 141
"evident that American journalists
take a sly pleasure in ob-
scuring the subject of the electric
light." This is an example
of the old adage to the effect that one
of the greatest tributes
to success is to have people deny that
it exists. However, the
French government took a different
view, for in 1881 Brush
was made a chevalier in the Legion of
Honor of France.35
A similar reaction was encountered in
London when Brush
sent there a sixteen-light dynamo in
order to interest some
British capitalists. For some time
certain English scientists
had predicted that it would be
impossible to accomplish the
very thing in which Brush had
succeeded. So the capitalists
did not believe that one dynamo could
supply sixteen lights
on one circuit. They expected some trickery.36
But when a
demonstration was arranged on December
23, 1879, they
were convinced. So was the editor of a
technical journal who
was present, and who wrote a week
later. "The beautiful sil-
very lustre and steadiness of the Brush
light astonished all
who saw it." He went on to remark
that this was the very
light which had been operating in
Cleveland for eight
months.37 Shortly after,
the Anglo-American Brush Electric
Light Corporation was financed to the
extent of four million
dollars.
To return to the American scene, we
find that the Cleveland
system heralded a new era in street
lighting, in which gigantic
strides would mark more progress in a
few years than had
occurred in all previous centuries.
Brush's feat was recog-
nized by the Scientific American in
the following words:
The genius of the inventor of this
system, and the energy and good
business management of the Brush
Electric Light Company of Cleveland,
have done more since 1876 to place the
business of illumination by the
electric light upon a practical and
substantial basis than has been done
in this direction by all other inventors
since the discovery by Faraday.38
35 Smith, "Charles Francis
Brush," 62.
36 Brush, "The Arc Light,"
1117.
37 "The
Brush Electric Light," Engineering, XXIX (1880), 13.
38 "The Brush Electric
Light," Scientific American, XLIV (1881), 211.
142 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Throughout the land from coast to
coast, on the plains and
in remote mountain areas, large and
small cities installed arcs
on their streets. In New York, a Brush
installation, with its
plant located at 133 and 135 West
Twenty-Fifth Street, be-
gan operation on December 20, 1880,
lighting Broadway from
Fourteenth to Twenty-Sixth Street,39
with fifteen lamps on a
circuit almost two miles long. This was
almost three years
before Edison's more publicized Pearl
Street station began to
supply the city with incandescent
lighting. In far away San
Francisco the California Electric Light
Company opened for
business in September 1879 with two Brush
dynamos.40 By
1884 it was a rather backward city which
had not replaced at
least some of its gas lamps with
electric arcs. The testimony
of Sir William Preece, chief engineer
of England's postal and
telegraphic services, and one of the
world's most eminent
electricians, gives more than adequate
evidence of the high
state of development of street lighting
in America. Returning
home after an inspection of public
street illumination in the
largest American cities, including
Cleveland, he wrote:
Electric lighting is flourishing in
America much more than at home.
... I know nothing more dismal than to
be transplanted from the
brilliantly illuminated avenues of New
York to the dull and dark streets
of London.... It is with arc lighting
that the greatest advances have
been made in the States.41
Since practically all of what he saw
consisted of Brush instal-
lations patterned after the Cleveland
model, the importance
of the latter is brought into sharper
focus by these observa-
tions of a distinguished foreign
expert.
In analyzing the success of the Brush
enterprise, it becomes
evident that its outstanding feature
was the high degree of
39 A few weeks later extended to
Thirty-Fourth Street. For an interesting
sketch of a night scene on lighted
Broadway, see the cover page of the issue of
the Scientific American cited
immediately above. A full description of this
installation is given on pp. 211-212.
40 "Electric Lighting on the Pacific Coast," Electrical World,
VII (1886), 167.
41 "Electric Lighting in America," Electrical World, IV (1884),
265.
CHARLES F. BRUSH 143
integration of the system. Dynamo, arc
lights, insulation,
and carbon rods42 were conceived
as integral parts of a uni-
fied whole by one man. Furthermore, all
of the shop machin-
ery and tools for manufacturing each
individual piece of
equipment were originated by Brush
himself. In 1881 the
Brush Electric Company moved to a
six-acre site on Mason
Street, where a huge complex of
buildings was erected, in
which all of the manufacturing was
carried on according to
a highly systematized pattern.43
The technical excellence of
Brush arc lighting led to frequent
descriptions in the electrical
journals.44 Also, Brush
himself was requested to describe and
explain how his dynamo and arc light operated.45
Brush died in Cleveland on June 15,
1929, after a long and
fruitful life as an inventor,
scientist, art patron, civic leader,
and philanthropist. But Clevelanders
remember him primarily
as the man who brought to their city
the distinction of having
the first public electric street
lighting in America. On May
26, 1954, a bronze plaque was affixed
to the front of the
present 75 Public
Square Building which commemorates
Brush as follows:
Charles Francis Brush a founder of the
Cleveland Electric Illuminating
Company installed America's first
electric street lighting on Cleveland's
Public Square, April 29, 1879.
42 The quality of the carbons was
extremely important. No matter how perfect
the lamp design and dynamo, efficient
operation could not be realized without
high-class carbons. For Brush's role in
the development of these, see B. F. Miles,
"Arc Light Carbons," Electrical
World, XXV (1895), 7-8, and F. Conrad and
W. A. Darrah, "History of the Arc
Lamp," Electrical Journal, XII (1915), 561.
43 A sketch of these works is in
"The 'Brush' Factory at Cleveland," Electrical
World, VI (1885), 43. According to Henry Howe, Historical
Collections of Ohio
(Cincinnati, 1907), I, 501, there were
525 employees at this plant in 1887.
44 For example, see Paget Higgs,
"The Brush Electric Light System," The
Electrician (London), III (1879), 87-89, published just over two
months after
the establishment of public lighting in
Cleveland, and E. Ladd in the Journal of
the Society of Telegraph Engineers, IX (1880), 153-154.
45 "The Brush System of Electric
Lighting," Van Nostrand's Engineering Maga-
zine, XXI (1879), 395-405; "The Brush System of Electric
Lighting," Tele-
graphic Journal and Electrical
Review, VII (1879), 417: "The
Brush System of
Electric Lighting," Scientific
American Supplement, XI (1881), 4362-4364.
144
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
On any night one can leave the soft
shadowless modern light
on the Public Square, and, walking a
few yards on Frankfort
Street, see a single bright glaring
light, slightly flickering
now and then, topped by an ornamental
hood of a style long
past. Beneath this light is a plaque
which reads:
On April 29, 1879, Cleveland's Public
Square was the site of the world's
first public street lighting designed by
Charles Francis Brush a founder
of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating
Company. The lamp directly
above this plaque is adapted from one of
the original arc lights used in
Cleveland for street lighting.
Thus does Cleveland do justice to the
memory of Charles
Francis Brush.
Charles F. Brush and the First
Public
Electric Street Lighting System
in America
By MEL GORMAN*
THE DEVELOPMENT OF street lighting is
one of the most
important factors which can be
considered in gauging the
social history of urban life. Until the
middle of the eighteenth
century there was very little incentive
for the dweller to
leave his house after dark, but with
the advent of the indus-
trial revolution the tempo of life
exerted more and more pres-
sure of activities which could not be
completed in the daylight
hours. By the end of the first decade
of the nineteenth cen-
tury the demand for better street
lighting had resulted in
the installation of gas lamps. But the
most spectacular break-
through in the entire history of street
lighting came in the
form of the dazzlingly brilliant
electric arc light. Within a
few years after its commercial
introduction in the late 1870's,
both large cities and small towns
provided at least their
main thoroughfares with the new
electrical illumination.
There was a notable diminution of
accidents at night to per-
sons, horses, and vehicles. But the
most salutary benefit
derived from the decrease in crime. A
contemporary cartoon
symbolizes the light as a policeman
dispersing a band of
thugs carrying the devil on their
shoulders. The legend reads:
"Crime has no bosom for the bright
rays of the mid-day sun,
but revels amidst the shadows of night.
The electric arc
* Mel Gorman is a professor of chemistry
at the University of San Francisco.