City Lights: Illuminating the American Night (Landscapes of the Night)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.16 (757 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 080186593X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-01-02 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Lowry, Jr., Professional Geographer"Engagingly written It synthesizes a wealth of materials and contains many unfamiliar examples. To suggest the ways in which people first responded to different forms of urban lighting, he draws skillfully on a range of sources, including novels, newspaper accounts, advertisements, technical reports, and trade periodicals. The many wonderful illustrations add much to the descriptions of technologies, people, and places A thought-provoking study of a rich subject." -- Adam Rome, Technology and Culture. Nye, American Historical Review"Jakle writes lucidly and vividly about innovations in illuminating technology during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It shows the importance of the automobile in defining many aspects of public lighting, and even the specialist can read it with profit." -- David E. "Jakle's primary goal is to tell, or remind, us that
Randall L. Wilson said Lite Lights. What attracted me to this book was understanding how changes in lighting technology impacted urbanization. However, this book is more about how lighting was a critical aspect to the development of urbanization. And even on that score the book doesn’t deliver.“City Lights” is divided up into two basic parts; the development of lighting technology which is the more interesting part of the book and societal uses of lighting which feels like a cursory survey of the deve
In contrast, cities before the end of the 19th century were dominated by shadows and darkness, their oil lamps mostly ineffectual against the night. Jakle reveals how artificial lighting became a dynamic instrument that altered every aspect of the urban landscape and was in turn shaped by the growth of America's automobile culture. The introduction of modern lighting technologies in the 1870s--at first natural gas and later electricity--transformed urban life in America and around the world.This promethean story and its impact on the shape and pace of life in the American city is engagingly recounted by John A. From the corner street lamp to the dazzling display of Broadway's "Great White Way," City Lights offers a lively and informative investigation into the geography of the night.. Today's cities shine brightly at night, illuminated by millions of street lamps, neon signs, and incandescent and fluorescent bulbs burning in the windows of office blocks, apartment buildings, and homes. Indeed, the modern city is in large part defined by this brilliance. He examines the technological and entrepreneurial innovations that made urban illumination possible and then explores the various ways in which artificial lighting was used to enhance