Bochum: City owned lighting

• Police consideration was behind early lighting in Bochum.
  

• Citizens wanted better lighting and the city went into business in 1855 to set-up a gas-operated system. City lighting was publicly owned and the lights were turned off for reasons of economy. The city Mayor lamented the ‘absurd modernism’ which kept the lights on when the moon shone!
  
  

• Gradually, the commercial axis of the city was lit by electric light and commerce demanded that thriftiness was not considered to be a good idea.