The Moonlight Towers & The Servant Girl Annihilator

[Howard Brown]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_tower

Some have claimed that Austin put up moonlight towers partially in response to the actions of the Servant Girl Annihilator, but the towers were not erected until 1894 and 1895, ten years after the murders took place


Austin, Texas, is the only city in the world known still to have moonlight towers. They are 165 feet (50 m) tall with foundations 15 feet (4.6 m) wide. The towers were manufactured in Indiana by Fort Wayne Electric Company and assembled on site. In 1894, the City of Austin purchased 31 used towers from Detroit. A single tower cast light from six carbon arc lamps, illuminating a 1,500 feet (460 m) radius circle brightly enough to read a watch.

[Cogidubnus]

I'd never heard of these...blimey

Dave

[Howard Brown]

Cog

I used to skip school back in the early '70s to go down to Austin and have to admit I don't remember seeing them at the time. They were there, but I was in an altered state.

Pretty cool structures, eh ?

[Stan Reid]

Yes, I believe these were the first form of electric lights-well before Edison. They were not practical for homes however because they were noisy, blindingly bright, put off smoke and required frequent adjustment to keep the electodes at the proper gap.