Early experimental <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/arc_light" class="extiw" title="en:arc light">carbon arc light</a> powered by a battery of liquid cells.  The arc light, the first practical electric light, was used for street and building lighting from the 1870s to the early 20th century, when it was replaced by the incandescent light.   This is a reproduction of the invention of the arc light by British chemist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Davy" class="extiw" title="en:Humphrey Davy">Humphrey Davy</a> around 1808.  Davy used a battery of 3000 liquid cells to produce a high voltage arc between carbon electrodes.
Augustin Privat Deschanel
1873
Retrieved September 17, 2013 from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jasLAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA702">Augustin Privat Deschanel 1878 <i>Elementary Treatise on Natural Philosophy, Part 3: Electricity and Magnetism</i>, D. Appleton and Co., New York, translated by J. D. Everett,  p. 702, fig. 509</a>  on Google Books