Streetlights

A system of street lighting was introduced in St Petersburg by Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre Le Blond (1718). The first streetlights were oil lamps in the area around the Winter Palace. Gas streetlights were later introduced (1819). The Gas Lighting Society of St Petersburg on Bolshaya Meschanskaya Street had a monopoly on the production and sell of gas (1835). Gas streetlights were confined to the city centre. Surrounding areas and small streets were lit by oil lamps and camphene lamps (1849), later replaced by kerosene lamps (1863) and electric streetlights (1870s). The Electric Lighting Company was founded to introduce electric streetlights (1886). There were three-thousand electric streetlights and thirteen-thousand gas and kerosene lamps in St Petersburg (1915).