Illumination items: By the lighting and illumination committee

The diagram shown in Fig. 1 gives a graphical record of the cost of light from the early days of electric lighting up to the present date. In 1885 the best available lamp was a 16-c. p. carbon lamp consuming about five watts per candle and costing $1.00. At that early date the cost of current was very high, too, such figures as we have been able to locate indicating an average price of about 20 cents per kilowatt-hour. Under these conditions, the cost of lighting was so high that the consumer got only 98 lumen-hours for one cent.