History of lighting in Helsinki
Finland’s first electric light was produced in Helsinki on 10 December 1877 in the railway yard of the machine workshop of the Finnish national railway company. In the next few summers, similar activities were continued as park lighting displays.
The first street lighting in Finland took place probably at the end of March 1885 when two electric lights were installed outside the Kiseleff house at the corner of Aleksanterinkatu and Unioninkatu.
Electric street lighting was therefore launched with trials and investigations. On 16 September 1911, the first streets, two streets called Heikinkatu (the beginning of Mannerheimintie) were equipped with electric street lighting.
Raising the profile with street lighting
The significance of street lights to the company image was recognised already in the early days of street lighting in Helsinki. The city’s first street lights, oil lamps, were first installed in 1818. Until then, people in the town had lived as in the countryside, according to the sun and daylight.
In the early stage, streets were lit up to indicate the differences between the provinces and the capital and between the gentry and the common people. When the highest officials in the country moved to Helsinki, street lights were needed to facilitate and safeguard the night life of the society.
Development work speeded up in the 1920s
In the 1920s, both the police and the town dwellers raised the issue of insecurity in the streets that were still deemed to be too dark. In addition to other crime, bootlegging was rife in the dimly-lit corners of the town during Prohibition.
Despite successful tests with electric lighting, the authorities were still carrying out comparisons between the costs of gas and electric lighting. When the decisions were delayed, both systems were improved.
However, time was on electricity’s side. More and more electric energy generated by hydropower flowed into town, electric lighting technology got off to a good start, and the popularity of electric street lighting grew constantly. In the end, gas lights were used in the streets of Helsinki in addition to electricity until 1946 when the last gas street lamps were taken out of use.
Neon lights arrived in Helsinki in the 1930s
Helsinki turned even more colourful in 1931 when shops started to use neon lights in their advertisements. In addition to shops, the new lighting invention was used straight away by the opponents of the Prohibition who commissioned an election advertisement made of neon lights, reading ‘Prohibition away, money to the state’ between the city centre and the Siltasaari district.
In the 1930s, remote control of street lights was also introduced, and the enormous task of converting the electricity distribution system from a direct current into an alternating current began. The lighting of harbours, railway and bus stations and airports was electrified already before the Second World War.
References:
Kaupungin Valot - Helsingin Kaupungin rakennusvalvontaviraston julkaisut
Oiva Turpeinen: Energiaa pääkaupungille - Sähkölaitostoimintaa Helsingissä 1884-1984
