San Jose electric light tower

San Jose electric light tower illuminated in the early 1880s

The San Jose electric light tower was constructed in 1881 at an intersection in downtown San Jose, California, as a "high light" or moonlight tower to light the city using arc lights. A pioneer use of electricity for municipal lighting, it was later strung with incandescent bulbs and was destroyed in a storm in December 1915. A half-size replica stands at History Park at Kelley Park.

History

The electric light tower was proposed by J. J. Owen, publisher of the San Jose Mercury, the precursor of the Mercury News, as a way of lighting the entire center of San Jose on the "high light" principle, at less cost than gas street lighting. Owen was inspired by the electric lighting in San Francisco, the first in the world, which he had visited in 1879. He designed the tower, estimating that it would require $5,000[1] and one month to build it. Just under $3,500 was raised by public subscription, and groundbreaking took place on August 11, 1881 and the tower was dedicated on December 13 the same year. The San Jose Mercury boasted that San Jose was the first town west of the Rockies lighted by electricity.[2]

San Jose Moonlight Tower postcard

As built, the tower was 207 feet tall, topped by a platform holding six arc lamps with a diffusing and protective shield above them and a 30-foot flagpole[3] for a total height of 237 feet and a total of 24,000 candlepower. It stood on a brick foundation and spanned the intersection of Santa Clara and Market Streets. It was made of hollow iron pipe and braced with iron hoops. Owen modeled it on the moonlight tower built earlier in 1881 in Akron, Ohio, widening the base so that supporting cables would not be needed; the Akron tower collapsed when the cables broke. Electrical equipment and power were supplied by the California Electric Light Company, which had been incorporated by George H. Roe to market the products of Charles Brush's Brush Electric Company. Brush's patented system made it possible to connect arc lamps in series. The generator was located in a steam-powered planing mill, using its steam power during the night hours.

The tower was possibly the world's tallest free-standing iron structure at the time. Its light was visible as far away as San Francisco;[4] it was brighter than expected, more like full moonlight, and a farmer outside San Jose complained that it interfered with his laying hens by confusing them.[5] Nearby businesses named themselves after it, and the police on the local beat made money selling birds that collided with the tower to local restaurants. Christmas lights and banners were hung from it, and photographers used it as a bird's eye vantage point. It was featured in an article in Harper's Weekly and was praised in La Lumière Électrique, a French electrical journal. It has been argued that its design influenced that of the Eiffel Tower, which was built eight years later; in 1989 the City of San Jose sued the estate of Gustave Eiffel and the City of Paris for copyright infringement of the San Jose design, the judge finding for Paris.[6] As of 2017, video producer Thomas Wohlmut plans a film exploring the similarities, titled The Light Between Two Towers.[4][7]

In April 1882 Owen sold the tower to Roe's company, by then the San Jose Brush Electric Light Company and later the San Jose Light and Power Company, to pay remaining construction costs; they constructed a new generating facility and supplemented the tower with a dozen 150-foot masts topped with additional arc lights. However, a rival company, the Electric Lighting Company, was awarded the city street lighting franchise.[8] Roe's company refused to allow them to light the tower, and it was unlighted until the Electric Lighting Company obtained permission from the City Council to overrule San Jose Light and Power's objections since the tower was on public land and had been paid for in large part by public subscription. They rewired it for incandescent light and it was again illuminated on February 28, 1891. San Jose Light and Power retaliated with an injunction; when this could not be served, the manager and a work crew cut the wiring and removed the new lamps, then guarded the tower against the Electric Lighting Company's men. This occurred on a Sunday, when it was then illegal under California law to serve an injunction, so just before midnight the manager and vice president of the Electric Lighting Company went to the tower and rewired it themselves, in stormy weather. When they were taken to court on a charge of contempt, the judge voided the injunction and fined both companies $50.[9] The legal struggle continued for several years, during which time the tower had a further six arc lamps added, plus small lights on the beams.

The plumbing piping of which the tower was constructed crystallized, masked by the paint,[10] and the joints rusted.[3][11] A wind storm on February 8, 1915, badly damaged it. A Tower Committee raised $6,100 to repair it, and a platform had been built under it and it was to have additional bracing added,[12] but before work could begin, on December 3, 56-mph winds destroyed it. There were no injuries.[13] The city is believed to have paid $4,000 to haul the debris away.

Half-size replica tower at History Park

Half-size replica

A replica approximately half the size of the original, 115 feet in height, was built at History Park in Kelley Park in 1977, to celebrate the bicentennial of the city. It cost $65,000, paid for by the San Jose Real Estate Board in addition to public subscriptions, and is lighted with 620 clear sign lamps on the tower supports and braces, and topped with a beacon made up of four 400-watt metal-halide lamps.[14]

Proposed replacement

In 2017 Wohlmut and two other members of the San Jose Rotary Club announced plans to raise money to construct a more robust version of the electric light tower with modern lighting and possibly an observation deck, to be located at Plaza de César Chávez.[4][7]

References

  1. ↑ Larson, p. 2; according to Arbuckle, $4,000.
  2. ↑ San Jose Mercury, December 25, 1881, cited in Ernest Freeberg, the Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America, Penguin history of American life, New York: Penguin, 2013, ISBN 978-0-14-312444-3, pp. 50–51.
  3. 1 2 Mary Gottschalk, "It’s the 130th anniversary of San Jose’s once-famous electric tower", Mercury News, December 8, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 Dan Pulcrano, "Towering Ambitions", Metro Silicon Valley, August 2, 2017, pp. 10+.
  5. ↑ According to Arbuckle, p. 497, in Morgan Hill; according to Larson, p. 14, in Los Gatos.
  6. ↑ Eric Carlson, "San Jose Electric Light Tower: San Jose vs. Paris", Soft Underbelly of San Jose, retrieved November 5, 2017.
  7. 1 2 Sal Pizarro, "New San Jose light tower project gaining support", Mercury News, August 12, 2017.
  8. ↑ According to Charles M. Coleman, P. G. and E. of California: The Centennial Story of Pacific Gas and Electric Company 1852–1952, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952, OCLC 316031512, p. 74, the San Jose Electric Improvement Company; formed by Harry J. Edwards, former general manager of the San Jose Light and Power Company, who left the company shortly after the Brush Electric Light Company merged with the San Jose Gas Company.
  9. ↑ Coleman, pp. 74–75 adds that the secretary of San Jose Light and Power was also arrested for brandishing a revolver at an Electric Lighting Company work crew.
  10. ↑ Larson, p. 4.
  11. ↑ Arbuckle, p. 511.
  12. ↑ "Failure of 200-Ft. Electric Light Tower at San Jose, California", Western Machinery and Steel World Volume 7 (1916) pp. 13–14.
  13. ↑ According to Gottschalk, Donald O. DeMers Jr. and Ann M. Whitesell, Santa Clara Valley: Images of the Past, San Jose: San Jose Historical Museum Association, 1977, OCLC 3551397, state that one person complained of a hand injury from flying debris.
  14. ↑ Larson, pp. 23–24.

Sources

  • Edward F. Caldwell. "San Jose District: San Jose's historic light tower destroyed". Pacific Service Magazine, Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Volume 7 (1915) 339–40.
  • Clyde Arbuckle. Clyde Arbuckle's History of San José. San Jose, California: City of San José, 1986. OCLC 32063141. pp. 497–98.
  • Linda S. Larson. "San Jose's Monument to Progress: The Electric Light Tower". San Jose, California: San Jose Historical Museum Association, 1989. OCLC 20691190

Coordinates: 37°20′08″N 121°53′31″W / 37.335488°N 121.892074°W / 37.335488; -121.892074

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