REPORT.

TO THE HONORABLE THE MAYOR AND BOARD OF ALDErmen OF THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE :

GENTLEMEN: The superintendent of lights herewith presents his annual report for the department year ending Dec. 31, 1893.

PUBLIC STREET LAMPS.

During the year six hundred and fifty additional electric arc lights have been set up and started, making a total of electric street lights now in service thirteen hundred and nineteen, which number are in accordance with a new agreement entered into between the City of Providence and the Narragansett Electric Lighting Company, approved Oct. 29, 1892, wherein the said Electric Lighting Company agree to furnish the said city with thirteen hundred and nineteen arc street lights, including the six hundred and sixty-nine lights then in use under a former agreement.

The said thirteen hundred and nineteen lights to be of what is commercially known as two thousand candle-power, and the price for each light each night to be thirty-eight and onehalf cents, as fixed by arbitrators. Provided, however, that the said thirteen hundred and nineteen lights shall, in consideration of forty-five of that number located in Roger Williams Park being extinguished at midnight each night, be counted and reckoned as thirteen hundred in payment therefor.

The Narragansett Electric Lighting Company, we pleased to say, are making constant and commendable efforts to insure satisfactory service in lighting the streets of Providence, which are provided with the necessary equipments for that purpose, although their efforts in that direction have been to a certain extent nullified by the Union Railroad Company, who. in their efforts to provide the citizens of Providence with a more rapid transit, have introduced electric motive power, under what is known as the trolley system, the poles for the support of the trolley and guard wires being in a position which in many cases prevent the electric light being kept in a position for a proper display of its light. The joint standing committee of the City Council on lamps now have the matter of devising a remedy under serious consideration.

GAS LAMPS.

Established during the year one hundred and ninety-two (192) gas lamps, of which one hundred and eleven (111) were placed in service by order of your honorable body, eightythree (83) gas posts relighted which had been discontinued, and fourteen hundred and eight 1,408) discontinued, leaving a total in service Dec. 31, 1893, of one thousand and one (1,001).

The gas is supplied by the Providence Gas Company, and its illuminating power as given by photometer test is seventeen-candle.

The amount consumed for street lighting during the year, thirty-two million three hundred ninety-six thousand eight hundred cubic feet (32,396,800), of which twenty million two hundred fifty-six thousand (20,256,000) cubic feet, at a cost of $1.25 per thousand feet, and twelve million one hundred and forty thousand (12,140,000) cubic feet, at a cost of $1.15 per thousand feet. The latter price was fixed by the Providence Gas Company, July 1, 1893.

FLUID LAMPS.

During the year there have been added ninety-one (91) fluid lamps, and seventy (70) discontinued, leaving a total of this kind of lamp in service Dec. 31, 1893, sixteen hundred and eighty-two (1,682).

Of this number nine hundred and thirty-five (935) are classed as gasoline lamps. The fluid used in these lamps is an oil known as gasoline, the specific gravity of which is 80°, and the lamps are especially designed for vaporizing the fluid, thereby obtaining a vapor light, which is conceded that, with proper care and management by the lighter, will produce a light equal in illuminating power to a four-foot gas light.

This system of street lighting is furnished by the Globe Gas Light Company, of Boston, Mass., who supply all the necessary fluid, founts, burners and tools for the care and lighting of said lamps, at a cost of six cents each light each night, the city reserving the right to employ and control the lighters, the expense thereof to be charged to the company.

The remaining number, seven hundred and fifty-seven (757), are classed as naphtha lamps. The fluid used in these lamps is a petroleum product known as naphtha, the specific gravity of which is 70°, and is burned in common wick lamps of three burners each.

This fluid during the year was furnished by Messrs. J. L. Peirce & Co., of this city, this department receiving from said company during the year six hundred and twelve barrels (612), the contents of which were thirty-one thousand one hundred and nineteen gallons, at a cost of six and a quarter cents per gallon.

The contract for furnishing this department with naphtha during the ensuing year is awarded by the committee to the Standard Oil Company, at the rate of 54 cents per gallon.