My hometown of Baltimore was the first city to install gas street lights in 1816 in an effort to curb crime. More cities quickly followed suit.  By the turn of the century, every evening at dusk, lamplighters walked the streets with their ladders and torches, igniting gas lamps one by one. Twenty years later, electric streetlights became more commonplace, and lamplighters became more or less an extinct species.By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the shar ...