Lighting Up Broadway More Efficiently

It was 133 years ago today that the first electric street lights were switched on, illuminating New York City’s Broadway (shown in this illustration six years later, in 1886). The lamps of the day delivered just a few lumens per watt, and now we’re measuring our LEDs in hundreds of lumens per watt, making this a fitting reminder of the rapidity with which technology is changing, improving our lives, and perhaps even more important, reducing the footprint of our energy consumption through efficiency and the development of renewable energy.