It was regarded as good practice to split the lighting over at least 2 and preferably all 3 phases in a factory or workshop with rotating machines.
The risk was greatest with flourescent or discharge lamps, since these flicker at twice line frequency. That could give the dangerous illusion that rotating machinery was at rest and safe to touch.
If only a single phase supply was available, special twin lamp flourescent fixtures were used, these had a capacitor in series with one lamp, and therefore gave a steady light in total from the two lamps.
(also had a good power factor)
Less of a problem these days due to the increasing use of electronic ballasts, these flicker much less, and at a very high frequency.
Also each ballast will be slightly different due to component tolerance, they wont all flicker at twice line frequency like magnetic ballasts.
Flicker is unlikely to be a problem in the USA with most incandescent lamps since the filament has enough thermal mass to remain lit continually on an AC supply.
Flicker can be a problem with very low current incandescents, since the thin filaments cool appreciably when no current is passing.
In the UK flicker from incandescents was slightly worse, due to the lower line frequency, and higher voltage. The higher voltage means a thiner filament for a given wattage.
Flicker is noticable with a 240 volt lamp of 25 watts or less, and can be detected with a 40 watt lamp.
It is insignificant with lamps of 60 watts and up, as would normally be used for factory lighting.
Low power filament lamps on machine tools are normally worked at 25 volts from a transformer, both to reduce flicker and enhance safety if the lamp or lampholder should be broken.
In the old days, some AC supplies were at very low frequencies such as 16.6, 20 or 25 cycles.
Such low frequencies are not ideal for lighting, and it was usual to either have a DC lighting supply, or to use gas lights.
If lighting had to be worked from a low frequency supply, 6 volt lamps from a transformer were sometimes used, the very thick filaments remain lit continually .
Note that lamp flicker could give the dangerous illusion that moving machinery was stationary, no matter how the machine was powered, did not have to be a three phase motor.
Single phase, or steam engine drive, or line shafting could appear stationery, or to be moving very slowly, under the right conditions.