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The use of street lighting was first recorded in London in 1417 when Sir Henry Barton, the mayor, ordered lanterns with lights to be hanged out on the winter evenings between Hallowtide and Candlemasse. more...

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However it was introduced to the United States by famed inventor Benjamin Franklin, who was the postmaster of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Because of this, many regard Philadelphia as the birthplace of street lighting in the United States.

The colonial-era streetlights were lit by candles shining inside their boxes. After the invention of gas light by William Murdoch in 1792, cities in Britain began to light their streets using gas and the United States followed suit shortly afterwards with the introduction of gas lighting to the streets of Baltimore in 1816. Throughout the nineteenth century, the use of gas lighting increased. After Edison pioneered electric use, light bulbs were developed for the streetlights as well. The first city to use electric street lights was Cleveland, Ohio in 1879. Some streets in the French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, are lit by gas lanterns.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the number of candle-lit streetlights were dwindling as developers were searching for safer and more effective ways to illuminate their streets. The fluorescent and incandescent lights became very popular during the 1930s and 1940s, when automobile travel began to flourish. A street with lights was referred to as a white way during the early 20th century.

History of manufacturers

The two main competitors in the street lighting industry were General Electric and Westinghouse. During the 1950s, GE lit roadways with its Form 109 and, later, the wildly popular Form 400. Westinghouse answered with the OV-20 model.

In 1957, a new breed of streetlight fixture was introduced. These fixtures were called "cobraheads". If viewed from beneath they resembled a cobra's flared neck. Westinghouse dubbed its cobraheads the Silverliners, which remained in production over the next 25 years. The OV-25 remains a very popular and most-beloved streetlight fixture.

GE later came out with its own cobrahead, called the M400. The original M400 is noted for its pointed front end that protrudes over its bowl-shaped diffuser (also called a refractor). The M400 was the OV-25's main rival. They carried 250-400 watt bulbs, and therefore, were common on Interstate highways and city boulevards.

In 1964, Westinghouse produced an updated version of the OV-25, with a more rounded look. Only the diffuser was left unchanged.

In 1967, GE updated its M400. Gone was the protruding front end, and the new M400 was also more streamlined.

GE and Westinghouse also developed smaller fixtures. A miniature version of the M400 was made for suburban residential streets and alleys. That fixture was called the M250. In the same vein, Westinghouse offered three smaller Silverliners. The OV-12 (whose look resembles a miniature OV-50) came out in 1960, and it became the companion model to the Canadian-market OV-14B, which had been introduced in 1957. The OV-14B looks like a smaller version of the 1957-edition OV-25. Both the OV-12 and OV-14B were replaced by the OV-15 in 1965. These smaller fixtures carried 100-250 watt light bulbs.

Read more at Wikipedia.org