人行道上那些漂亮的玻璃棱鏡是做什么用的

人行道上那些漂亮的玻璃棱鏡是做什么用的

Have you ever walked along a city street and noticed grids of colored glass on the sidewalk? Though the patterns are lovely and may seem decorative, they actually served a purpose — or at least they did at one time. The glass pieces are vault lights, sometimes called pavement lights in the U.K. They were inserted into the sidewalk to allow light into the basement areas below ground.

你是否曾經(jīng)走過城市的街道，注意到人行道上五顏六色的玻璃網(wǎng)格?盡管這些圖案很可愛，看起來像是裝飾性的，但它們實際上是有目的的——或者至少曾經(jīng)是。這些玻璃碎片是拱頂燈，在英國有時被稱為路面燈。

Sidewalk glass prisms in San Francisco. (Photo: Mike [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

The first vault light was patented in 1834 by Edward Rockwell, reports Glassian, a site devoted to glass collections and glass history. It was a round iron plate surrounding a large glass lens.

據(jù)Glassian網(wǎng)站報道，1834年，愛德華·洛克威爾為第一盞拱頂燈申請了專利。該網(wǎng)站致力于研究玻璃收藏和玻璃歷史。它是一個大玻璃鏡片周圍的圓形鐵板。

A pavement light outside Burlington House in London. (Photo: Etan J. Tal [CC BY-SA 3.0]/Wikipedia)

In 1845, Thaddeus Hyatt proffered his own patent application complaining that Rockwell's lights were easy to fracture. He instead proposed an iron plate containing small glass pieces, protected by protruding iron knobs. Those are the lights you're most likely to still see today.

1845年，撒迪厄斯·凱悅提交了自己的專利申請，抱怨羅克韋爾的電燈容易損壞。相反，他提出了一個鐵板包含小玻璃碎片，由突出的鐵旋鈕保護。這些是你今天最有可能看到的光。

Sidewalk glass prisms around Melbourne's Collins Street. (Photo: Mike [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

The top of the vault lights are flat with the sidewalk so that people can walk right over them, but the bottom often has a different shape.

拱頂燈的頂部與人行道是平的，這樣人們可以直接從上面走過，但底部通常有不同的形狀。

Some of them have a prism design so the bottom can spread as much light as possible through a broad area, explains GBA Architectural Products. "In some cases, multiple prisms set at different angles would be incorporated to spread the light evenly throughout an even larger room."

GBA建筑產(chǎn)品解釋說，其中一些有棱鏡設(shè)計，所以底部可以通過一個廣闊的區(qū)域傳播盡可能多的光。“在某些情況下，設(shè)置在不同角度的多個棱鏡會被合并在一起，使光線均勻地散布在更大的房間里。”

Sidewalk prisms at Elizabeth Street in Sydney. (Photo: Mike [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

These sidewalk prisms were first used on the decks of ships.

這些人行道上的棱鏡最初是用在甲板上的。

"It's long been the traditional way of lighting the interior of ships," Diane Cooper, a museum technician at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, told KQED News. "While kerosene lamps were sometimes used, the smoke could make interior spaces uncomfortable. And candles could become a fire hazard on wooden ships."

舊金山海事國家歷史公園的博物館技術(shù)人員黛安·庫珀告訴KQED新聞記者:“長久以來，這一直是照亮船只內(nèi)部的傳統(tǒng)方式。”“雖然有時使用煤油燈，但煙霧會讓室內(nèi)空間不舒服。蠟燭可能成為木船的火災(zāi)隱患。”

Bunn Building vault lights in Waycross, Georgia. (Photo: Michael Rivera [CC BY-SA 3.0]/Wikimedia Commons)

The lights became popular in U.S. cities like New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle. Internationally, the lights came to be found everywhere from London to Dublin, Amsterdam to Toronto. The idea eventually spread to even smaller cities.

這種燈在紐約、舊金山、芝加哥、費城和西雅圖等美國城市流行起來。在國際上，從倫敦到都柏林，從阿姆斯特丹到多倫多，到處都可以看到燈光。這個想法最終傳播到了更小的城市。

They were a way to illuminate spaces where natural light wasn't available and a way to avoid using gas, oil and candles.

它們是一種照亮沒有自然光的空間的方式，也是一種避免使用天然氣、石油和蠟燭的方式。

Vault light in front of 239 Chestnut in Philadelphia. (Photo: Susan Babbitt [CC BY 2.0]/Flickr)

Vault lights can be various colors, but they are often found in shades of purple.

拱頂燈可以是各種各樣的顏色，但它們通常是紫色的陰影。

When the lights were originally put in place, many of the glass pieces were clear. But during older glass manufacturing, chemists would mix in manganese dioxide during the process. That would stabilize the glass and take away the greenish tint it got from other elements.

當(dāng)燈光最初安裝到位時，許多玻璃碎片是透明的。但是在舊的玻璃制造過程中，化學(xué)家會在這個過程中加入二氧化錳。這樣可以穩(wěn)定玻璃，去掉玻璃從其他元素中得到的綠色。

Over the years, as manganese is exposed to ultraviolet rays, it turns purple or even pinkish, KQED reports. The colored glass today is either very old or has been dyed to look like old glass.

多年來，錳暴露在紫外線下，會變成紫色甚至略帶粉紅色，KQED報道。今天的彩色玻璃不是很舊就是被染成舊玻璃的樣子。

Vault lights as seen from below in Seattle. (Photo: Britta Gustafson [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

The use of vault lights declined by the 1930s when electricity became more common and inexpensive. As the glass pieces cracked in places, they became hazards to pedestrians as well as the subterranean spaces down below as they let in moisture. Cities began to cover or remove them.

20世紀(jì)30年代，隨著電力變得更加普遍和便宜，保險庫照明的使用開始減少。隨著玻璃碎片在一些地方裂開，它們對行人和下面的地下空間造成了危害，因為它們讓濕氣進入地下。城市開始覆蓋或移走它們。

Old sidewalk prisms in an underground alleyway in Seattle. (Photo: Britta Gustafson [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

However, some preservation groups are working to restore the lights for their historic and aesthetic value. Some cities, like Seattle, offer tours that show where the vault lights are located and have done studies on their history and value.

然而，一些保護組織正在努力恢復(fù)這些燈的歷史和美學(xué)價值。有些城市，比如西雅圖，會提供參觀服務(wù)，告訴游客拱頂燈的位置，并對它們的歷史和價值進行研究。

Says GBA, "Since many vault lights panels have lasted for more than a century, these cityscape artifacts have become prized historical treasures."

GBA說，“由于許多拱頂燈面板已經(jīng)持續(xù)了一個多世紀(jì)，這些城市景觀文物已經(jīng)成為珍貴的歷史寶藏。”

Pavement lights in Portugal. (Photo: Daderot [public domain]/Wikipedia)

Vault light in front of a house at 1006 Clinton, Philadelphia. (Photo: Susan Babbitt [CC BY 2.0]/Flickr)