The first electric city?

The story

I · 1857–1882

The gas town

Timișoara had known street light for over a century, but the light came from Austrian gas — until the contract ran out.

In 1857, the lamplighter climbs his wooden ladder every evening on the streets of the Cetate and lights the gas lanterns of the Austrian company — the flame flickers behind the glass, carriages pass through its yellow circle, and the suburbs receive the same light in turn. In 1869, horse trams started rattling beneath the lanterns, and the city grew around them.

But the gas contract had an expiry date — and in 1882, at the town hall, the question was asked: 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.

Meanwhile: On 4 September 1882, Edison's Pearl Street station starts feeding lower Manhattan — the first permanent commercial station in the United States.

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

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 pen moves across the concession contract: the Anglo-Austrian Brush Electrical Company Ltd. takes on the electric lighting of Timișoara's streets. St. George Lane Fox, the engineer working with the Vienna Brush company, joins the works.

Less than two years of building followed: 59 kilometres of cable laid under the cobblestones, 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.

Meanwhile: On 20 September 1882, Berlin switches on 36 arc lamps on Leipziger Strasse, up to Potsdamer Platz — one avenue, not a city.

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

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, people step out of their houses and look up: one by one — then all at once — 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.

A few weeks before the great switch-on, the magazine Luminătorul had managed to describe the new light, in issue 76 of 22 September – 4 October 1884: a light “almost identical to the glow of the moon”, which does not tire the eye but “somewhat sweetens it”.

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.

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)

IV · 1881–1884

What kind of “first”?

Godalming, Nuremberg and Berlin complicate the story — which is exactly why it deserves telling to the end.

On 20 September 1882, a Berlin passer-by could walk down Leipziger Strasse, from Friedrichstrasse to Potsdamer Platz, beneath 36 arc lamps — one lit avenue, not a city. At Godalming, the world's first public network, from 1881, had 4 arc lamps and 27 incandescent ones, and Nuremberg had lit a single street in 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.

Meanwhile: On 27 July 1899, Timișoara’s first electric trams enter service, replacing horse traction.

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 (our translation)

✦

The lighting map, 1884

The city on the switch-on evening: 731 lamps and 59 kilometres of cable at city level, in the quarters they covered. The per-street split did not survive in the sources — undocumented.

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

The five quarters

From lanterns to the electric tram

• Godalming 1881 — the whole network31
• Berlin 1882 — Leipziger Strasse36
• Timișoara 1884 — the whole city731

Figures from the sources below; gaps 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.

The Brush building site, spring 1883: ankle-deep mud, cable drums, and the gas lobby demanding a new tender. Five rounds left until 12 November 1884.

Beware: the same works twice in a row bring only half the lamps (crew fatigue).

The numbers

Every figure above, in one place — the eight numbers of the evening.

Myths, held under the lamp

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 our 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 [→]
• First horse-drawn trams, 8 July 1869 [→]
• 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) [→]
• Temesvár 1884: direct current, 110 V [→]
• 27 July 1899: electric trams enter service [→]

Chapter IV — What kind of “first”?

• Godalming 1881: the first public supply — 4 arc and 27 incandescent lamps, at small scale [→]
• Nuremberg 1882: Schuckert; the first street with electric light in Germany [→]
• The 1882 street lighting of Leipziger Strasse and Potsdamer Platz (Siemens chronology) [→]
• Late-19th-century quarters: Cetate, Fabric, Elisabetin, Iosefin; Elisabetin named 1896, Mehala incorporated 1910 [→]

The lighting map

• The map is schematic (own drawing); quarter shapes are illustrative, not cadastral [→]
• The per-street and per-quarter split of the 731 lamps: undocumented in the inspected sources [→]

The game

• The game starts from the documented scale (0 → 731 lamps); rounds and gains are game rules, not history [→]

The images

• piata — PD: Timisoara 1880 photograph, via Commons
• banca — PD: Timisoara 1880 photograph, via Commons
• cazarma — PD: Timisoara 1880 photograph, via Commons
• brush — PD: Harper's Weekly, 14 Jan 1882, C. Graham