Artificial Light: Its Influence upon CivilizationLuckiesh, Matthew
History
Artificial Light: Its Influence upon Civilization
Luckiesh, Matthew
Electric lighting; Lighting -- History
In another section the visitor was greeted with a gorgeous display of
carnival spirit. Beautifully colored heraldic shields on which were
written the early history of the Pacific coast were illuminated by
groups of luminous arc-lamps on standards varying from twenty-five to
fifty-five feet in height. The Tower of Jewels with more than a hundred
thousand dangling gems was flood-lighted, and the myriads of minute
reflected images of light-sources glittering against the dark sky
produced an effect surpassing the dreams of imagination. Shadows and
high-lights of striking contrasts or of elusive colors greeted the
visitor on every hand. Individual isolated effects of light were to be
found here and there. Fire hissed from the mouths of serpents and cast
the spell of mobile light over the composite Spanish-Gothic-Oriental
setting. A colored beam of a search-light played here and there.
Mysterious vapors rising from caldrons were in reality illuminated
steam. Symbolic fountain groups did not escape the magic touch of the
lighting wizard.
In the Court of the Universe great areas were illuminated by two
fountains rising about a hundred feet above the sunken gardens. One of
these symbolized the setting sun, the other the rising sun. The shaft
and ball at the crest of each fountain were glazed with heavy opal glass
imitating travertine marble and in these were installed incandescent
lamps of a total candle-power of 500,000. The balustrade seventy feet
above the sunken gardens was surmounted by nearly two hundred
incandescent filament search-lights. Light was everywhere, either
varying in color into a harmonious scene or changing in light and shadow
to mold the architecture and sculpture. The enormous glass dome of the
Palace of Horticulture was converted into an astronomical sphere by
projecting images upon it in such a manner that spots of light revolved;
rings and comets which appeared at the horizon passed on their way
through the heavens, changing in color and disappearing again at the
horizon. All these effects and many more were mirrored in the waters of
the lagoons and the whole was a Wonderland indeed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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