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Pavement light

view down onto a sidewalk with vault lights; a slab of concrete with a regular grid of inset squares of slightly domed purple glass. Within each square, faint vertical lines can be seen through the glass, and points of light shining up through the glass are duplicated in horizontal lines of three points of light. Some yellow leaves have fallen on the damp concrete.
Sidewalk prisms from above, with lights shining up from inside the hollow sidewalk. The purple shade has developed over a century. These are multi prisms; the ridges can be seen running vertically (see § Transparent elements).

Pavement lights (UK), vault lights (US), floor lights, or sidewalk prisms are flat-topped walk-on skylights, usually set into pavement (sidewalks) or floors to let sunlight into the space below. They often use anidolic lighting prisms to throw the light sideways under the building. They were developed in the 19th century, but declined in popularity with the advent of cheap electric lighting in the early 20th. Older cities and smaller centers around the world have, or once had, pavement lights.[1] In the early 21st century, such lights are approximately a century old,[2] although lights are being installed in some new construction.[3]

Cross-section of a road and adjacent building, showing the basement extending under the sidewalk and part of the road. Sunlight is shining through the sidewalk into the basement.
A sidewalk vault daylit through vault lights, 1880
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  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).