What was switched on at Timișoara on the evening of 12 November 1884?
731 incandescent lamps, 59 kilometres of cable and a Viennese company — the story of the night Timișoara became the first city in Europe with entirely electrically illuminated streets, and of the asterisk it deserves.
Answer Yes — with an asterisk. On 12 November 1884 Timișoara switched on a complete electric system at the scale of the whole city: 731 incandescent lamps, 59 kilometres of cable. The earlier attempts — Godalming, Nuremberg, Berlin — had been tiny networks, isolated streets or arc lamps; Timișoara was the first fully lit city.
12 November 1884 — the switch-on evening
731 carbon-filament lamps
59 km of electric cable
15 December 1882 — the Brush contract
Prince Eugen Square (today Liberty Square), Timișoara, 1880 — four years before the electric light.Photograph from 1880 · public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Timișoara had known street light for over a century, but the light came from Austrian gas — until the contract ran out.
In 1857, Temesvár received public gas lighting; in 1867 the horse trams arrived. The city was growing, and the gas lanterns — supplied by an Austrian company — had become natural sights on the streets of the Cetate and the suburbs.
But the gas contract had an expiry date — and in 1882 the city had to choose: extend it, or try something else. Mayor Török János, whom local history calls the “father” of electric street lighting, refused the extension and accepted the Anglo-Austrian company's offer: electric light for every street.
The era in its own words
The chief magistrate abandoned the extension of the contract with the Austrian company for aerial gas lighting and accepted the offer from the Anglo-Austrian Electrical Company Ltd.
— Visit Timișoara, on the 1882 decision
The artillery barracks, Timișoara, 1880 — streets still lit by gas.Photograph from 1880 · public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile: On 4 September 1882, Edison's Pearl Street station starts feeding lower Manhattan — the first permanent commercial station in the United States.
II · 1882–1884
The contract
On 15 December 1882, the city bets on a Viennese company and two new words: electric light.
On 15 December 1882, the city signs the concession contract with the Anglo-Austrian Brush Electrical Company Ltd. for the electric lighting of the streets. St. George Lane Fox, the engineer working with the Vienna Brush company, joins the works.
The works take less than two years: a network of 59 kilometres of cable, hundreds of poles and lamps, dynamos to feed them all. In the press of the day, the Temesvár site counts as one of the earliest and most extensive street electrifications in Europe.
The era in its own words
One of the earliest and most extensive uses of electric street lighting in Europe.
— Grace's Guide, on Temesvár 1882–1884
A Brush arc lamp in Madison Square, New York, 1882 — the firm that would light Timișoara.Harper's Weekly, 14 January 1882 · public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile: On 20 September 1882, Berlin switches on 36 arc lamps on Leipziger Strasse, up to Potsdamer Platz — one avenue, not a city.
III · 12 November 1884
The night
731 lamps, 59 kilometres of cable, a single evening: 12 November 1884.
On the evening of 12 November 1884, 731 incandescent lamps with carbon filaments are switched on, fed through 59 kilometres of cable. Not a trial street, not a festive square: the whole city, all at once.
The magazine Luminătorul, in issue 76 of 22 September – 4 October 1884, had managed to describe the new light before the great switch-on — a light “almost identical to the glow of the moon”, which does not tire the eye but “somewhat sweetens it”.
The era in its own words
The light of the electric lamp is powerful and far surpasses that of the gas flame; the light is altogether gentle, almost identical to the glow of the moon, not only does it not disturb the eye's vision, but it also somewhat sweetens it.
— Luminătorul, no. 76, 22 September – 4 October 1884 (as quoted in English)
Prince Eugen Square, Timișoara, 1880 — the city before the electric night.Photograph from 1880 · public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile: At Godalming, in England, the world's first public network, from 1881, lights up with 4 arc lamps and 27 incandescent ones — a tiny scale next to Timișoara.
IV · 1881–1884
What kind of “first”?
Godalming, Nuremberg and Berlin complicate the story — which is exactly why it deserves telling to the end.
“The first electric city in Europe” is said quickly and proved with difficulty: Godalming had lit a public network back in 1881, Nuremberg had lit a street in 1882, and Berlin had switched on 36 arc lamps on 20 September 1882.
The difference lies in scale and kind: Timișoara was the first city with entirely electrically illuminated streets — a complete, city-wide system of incandescent lamps. Not Europe's first spark, but its first whole city switched on.
The era in its own words
36 arc lamps, which lit Leipziger Strasse from Friedrichstrasse to Potsdamer Platz.
— Energie-Museum Berlin, on 20 September 1882 (editors' translation)
The first bank, Timișoara, 1880 — the city that would demand electric light for every street.Photograph from 1880 · public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile: On 12 July 1889, Timișoara starts the electric supply of the horse-drawn trams — the light conquers transport too.
✦
The lighting map, 1884
The city on the switch-on evening. The network is documented at city level — 731 lamps, 59 kilometres of cable — and the map shows the quarters it covered. The per-street split, lamp by lamp, did not survive in the inspected sources: nothing is invented here.
The system, in documented figures
Lamps lit on 12 November 1884731
Kilometres of cable59
Kind of lampsincandescent, carbon filament
BuilderAnglo-Austrian Brush, Vienna
Duration of the worksunder two years
Current (after a single source)direct, 110 V
1760 — The first street lanterns in the Habsburg Empire — at Timișoara
1857 — Public gas lighting
1867 — Horse trams
15 December 1882 — The concession contract with Anglo-Austrian Brush, 15 December
12 November 1884 — The 731 lamps are switched on, 12 November
1899 — Electric trams
The five quarters
Touch a quarter to see what is known about it.
The city's quarters in 1884 (5)
Cetate (Belváros) — The fortified inner city — the main squares and streets, the first target of any lighting network. How many of the 731 lamps went here: undocumented.
Fabric (Gyárváros) — The factory suburb to the east, beyond the Bega canal. Covered by the 1884 network; the per-street split: undocumented.
Iosefin (Józsefváros) — The western suburb, along the Bega. Covered by the 1884 network; the per-street split: undocumented.
Maiere (the future Elisabetin) — The garden suburb in the south, still called Maiere — the name Elisabetin only arrives in 1890. Covered by the network; street detail: undocumented.
Mehala (village, outside the city) — Still a village outside the city in 1884 — incorporated only in 1910. On the switch-on evening, the 731 lamps stayed inside the city.
Mehala was still a village outside the city (incorporated in 1910); the Maiere would only receive the name Elisabetin in 1890. The map is schematic, an original drawing.
From lanterns to the electric tram
Godalming 1881 — the whole network31
Berlin 1882 — Leipziger Strasse36
Timișoara 1884 — the whole city731
Every figure on this page comes from the sources below; every gap is marked undocumented.
✦
Game: wire the city
You are Brush's contractor at Timișoara. You have five rounds — from the spring of 1883 to the autumn of 1884 — to light 731 lamps before 12 November. The gas lobby trips you at every step.
Beware: the same works twice in a row bring only half the lamps (crew fatigue).
Lamps lit: 0 lampsTarget: 731 lamps
Round 1 · 1883 spring
Round 2 · 1883 summer
Round 3 · 1884 spring
Round 4 · 1884 summer
Round 5 · 1884 autumn
Game: wire the city — Event
1883 spring: Lay cable +130; Raise poles and lamps +100; Mount dynamos +80; Event: The gas lobby demands a new tender. (−10 lamps)
1883 summer: Lay cable +140; Raise poles and lamps +150; Mount dynamos +90; Event: The gas company disputes the cable routes. (−15 lamps)
1884 spring: Lay cable +150; Raise poles and lamps +140; Mount dynamos +100; Event: Frost halts the site for two weeks. (−20 lamps)
1884 summer: Lay cable +150; Raise poles and lamps +190; Mount dynamos +110; Event: The Viennese press praises the Temesvár site. (−10 lamps)
1884 autumn: Lay cable +150; Raise poles and lamps +200; Mount dynamos +120; Event: The night of 12 November: the whole city looks up. (+25 lamps)
The numbers
1,760first lanterns (Habsburg)
1,857public gas lighting
1,882the Brush contract
731lamps lit in one evening
59km of electric cable
1,884the switch-on night
110volts, direct current
1,899electric trams
Myths, held under the lamp
“The first electric city in Europe”
True, with an asterisk
So they say, and it is nearly so: on 12 November 1884 Timișoara was the first city in Europe with entirely electrically illuminated streets — a complete system at the scale of the whole city, with incandescent lamps.
The asterisk: Godalming (1881), Nuremberg (1882) and Berlin (20 September 1882) had lit electric lights earlier — but a tiny network, a single street, and 36 arc lamps respectively. Timișoara was not the first spark; it was the first whole city.
“There were 300 lamps, then 731”
Unconfirmed
Some accounts mention 300 lamps that supposedly grew to 731. In the sources inspected for this page, the figure of 300 appears nowhere: all give 731 lamps on 12 November 1884.
Until proven otherwise, 300 remains an unconfirmed figure — and the page does not use it.
“Edison lit Timișoara”
False
Not Edison, but Brush: the network was built by the Anglo-Austrian Brush Electrical Company of Vienna, with St. George Lane Fox on the team, and finished in under two years.
The confusion is understandable — Edison dominated the press of the day — but the contract of 15 December 1882 bears another name.
Sources and method
All dates and figures come from the cited sources; every row below links to its source.
What could not be proven is marked undocumented or unconfirmed — never approximated.
The Luminătorul quote (1884, public domain) is given in the editors' translation, after the preserved English quotation.
The city map is an original schematic drawing; the photographs are from 1880–1882, public domain, verified file by file.
Chapter I — The gas town
Gas street lighting in Temesvár from 1857; horse trams from 1867 [→]
In 1882 the city drops the extension with the Austrian aerial-gas company and accepts the Anglo-Austrian offer; mayor Török János [→]
Timișoara, the first city in the Habsburg Empire with street lighting, 1760 [→]
Pearl Street station, New York, 4 September 1882: the first permanent commercial station in the US [→]
Chapter II — The contract
15 December 1882: the concession contract with the Anglo-Austrian Brush Electrical Company Ltd. for electric lighting [→]
1882–1884: Lane Fox and the Vienna-based Anglo Austrian Brush company electrify the lighting of the whole town of Temesvár; completed 1884 [→]
The system completed in less than two years by the Anglo-Austrian Brush Electrical Company, Vienna [→]
Berlin, 20 September 1882: 36 arc lamps on Leipziger Strasse to Potsdamer Platz [→]
Chapter III — The night
12 November 1884: 731 incandescent carbon-filament lamps on 59 km of cable [→]
Luminătorul no. 76 (22 September – 4 October 1884) on the new lamp's light (quoted via Visit Timișoara) [→]
