A NOVEL warning device was attracting the attention of Sotonians 100 years ago this week, when the strange contraption made its first appearance in Southampton as it was being installed on to the town’s Bargate.

The new-fangled system, which is shown here being fixed into place in this Southampton Pictorial image of the time, consisted of a signal operated by means of an electric switch, which would display a green light for ‘road clear’ and a red light for ‘stop!’, and was expected to make it easier and safer for tram drivers as they negotiated the town’s ancient monument.

Meanwhile, on the pages of the Daily Echo this week, there was an interesting debate at a meeting of the Southampton Corporation on the proposal of the Works Committee that the lights of the town be extinguished at midnight from the last week of March up to the end of September.

Supporting this proposal, Alderman Weston expressed the opinion that midnight was a time when all good people ought to be in bed. However an argument among the councillors soon ensued, as Alderman Beavis announced his intention of voting against the recommendation.

Who, he asked, was going to be answerable if a motor car ran into one of the electric light standings in the middle of the road?

Alderman Sharp also hoped the recommendation would not be carried, as he believed that turning out the lights would cause inconvenience and endanger the public.

He also turned the councillors’ attentions to the town’s citizens who worked late at night. He argued that certain occupations – to which he highlighted members of the press as an example – were required to work late into the night, especially on a Friday night, when most weekly papers were being printed, requiring them to work until one o’clock in the morning.

Councillor Blakeway immediately seconded Alderman Sharp’s claims by declaring that Southampton was the last town in England that ought to be in darkness after midnight, saying it was “one of the most impossible propositions imaginable”.

As Councillors Laughland and Vincent also protested against the lights being turned out, Councillor Tebbutt reasoned that the lights out proposal was a matter of economy.

To burn thousands of lights in the streets for hours and hours when they were not wanted was, to his mind, absurd. The main streets were lit up by the shops until such time as they were not used.

London was practically in darkness after midnight and Mr Tebbutt believed that Southampton could follow suit to help the committee save money for the town.

As the debate became more protracted, and somewhat heated, Alderman Weston, fearing that his proposal was the root of the tense exchanges between those gathered, immediately expressed his willingness to withdraw the recommendation.

But with order momentarily restored, Councillor McDonnell declared that at this moment to take such a drastic step would be positively dangerous to the town.

If it was a case of economy it was quite possible that any savings made would be swept into nothingness by any potential claims of damage or injury caused from the blackouts.

The recommendation was dismissed.