New Britain Herald Newspaper, April 9, 1915, Page 10

I oVYTZar 0L TIUIDATION DrondiT heDor(hern Liohls o jreal Panama-Pacific blecoalional Exposilio By Edyvard H. Hurlbut. 5 P.M. Announcement salute, S-inch shells. po P. M. Aurora borealis single beams; half sections and sections of four, and in column of batteries. Scotch plaids dissolving and expanding in unit beams and in half sections and sections of four. () .M. Beam dance. Form beacon, white light concen- trating Batteries A and B over the Column of Progress and concentrating entire battery in white light on Tower of Jewels. Change in the following order: 1,2, 8, }, 56 and 6. Battery. 4 form aurora borealis Exposition colors with cen- ter on Column of Progress. Change formation to sections of four kasn’t anything to do with the war, San Francisco is not mar- the coast artillery to repel an invading force—not a hostile -in- lorce at any rate. It is something quite different. It is the illumi- ief of the Panama Pacific Interna.tinnal Exp?sition issuing orders des de camp preparatory to releasing on a brief parole the Aurora urora is in captivity at the and for a few minutes hit the resplendent hues that | the gloom of the Arctic Il flame as gloriously under e skies. brely a little trifle of science. ‘se, the original Aurcra " wouldn't have achieved e in history, fact and fic- it not keen for the thing Inows as the spectrum. Any fle high school boy with his iry physics could tell you y brought everything to s exposition from all the s of latitude and the 360 that cross and circle the Phere was only one thing Aurora Borealis. Some jind—President Moore, Di- ‘Works Connick, Chief of lles Guerin, or possibly the director, George Hough @ppened to think of the wonder of the frozen lands fifty-three. ly sent for the Chief of T1- bn, W. D’A. Ryan. Ryan dy produced marvels in It was put up to him to ‘same little spectrum and the secret of the Aurora It was one of those simple hmissions which the exposi ors have had such a habit distributing. ell have they selected their as & commission executed same expedition and suc- the commission was exe- instance, to build the larg- e structure under one roof orld todav; that the com- s executed to paint on ex- ls mural canvases by fa- when such a thing had done before: that the on was evecuted to create and distingtively western architecture; that the com- executed to paint an ex- in color for the first time ly; that the commission was o produce a landscape ef- b fect that gives the seeming of gard- ens rooted for a generntiog. s However he did it—this little trifie of science—Ryan executed his com- mission. The Aurora Borealis is here. Located‘ on the yacht harbor of the exposition is a miniature Morro castle—combining, oddly enough, !he tyopzcs }vith the temperate zone in this arctic circle feature—and in this castle is a scintillator of 3,600, 000,000 candle power. From this the Aurora Borealis bursts in effulgence and glory, mile on mile in spread, from the Golden Gate to timbered Tamalpais and down the stretches of the bay to touch with friendly greet- Rg the rooky oll_(ll whlalers tied up for e season in the placid anc! of the estuary. o porss It takes scores ot giant projectors with many colored lenses besides this stupendous scintillator to complete the effect, and a company of men to man them. They work by batterie The system of operation is as me- thodical and as intricate as the man- ning of a coast defense battery. Hence the codifiea directions of Mr. Ryan to h_is staff. Only, rather than repelling invaders, the sum and total of this entire grand effect of illumi- nation, is to invite and hold visitors. The extracts given from the “manual of. operation” are but three o=t of thirty-three. No display lasts longer t}]an.five minutes and many of the lighting effects whirl one after the other at minute intervals, The Aurora Borealis is by no means the only spectacular effect. There is the grand illuminaticn of the exposition, including Alcatraz Island and the hills of Ma~in, across the bay. There is the Beam dance, Snook’s parade, Plumes of Paradise, Cloud salvo, Devil’s Fan, Chromatic Wheels, Fairy Feathers and the Sun- burst. Sunset clouds burst forth in the night and grotesque figures move across the heavens marked by the rays of searchlights. Steam ser- ents spit and hiss as the{ gyrate. ines explode into great banks of smoke giving forth radiations of every known shade and tint, and many that the average person does 1 not know. There arc in all 300 effects worked out by the Scintillator in addition to the Aurora Borealis. But Mr. Ryan would not thank anyorie to center him entirely in his Aurora Borealis, which is classed rather as an attraction feature. It is in the utility phase of the science of illumination—or the art, for Mr. Ryan has made of his illum an art—that the effects of m found revelation in lighting are se- cured. And yet, without the color scheme of Mr. Jules Guerin—not Monsieur, as Guerin complains, for he is exceedingly democratic and everyday American—these lighting effects, colorful thouor they are, would fail of their richness. The man who deals #ith ments, amperes and v. Ages 9 generally held to carry in his systcm PALACES b3~ 3 NIGHT N the temperament of the man.who deals_in colors and canvases. But Mr. Ryan is a temperamental me- chanic. There is a great deal of the poet in him. ‘He has occasional glim into the fourth dimension, just as the artist and the sculptor and the master writer have. Tha* is why Guerin and Ryan have worked out esthetically the scheme of thi X , by which color and hght are co-ordinated as nature intended they should r scheme of tk erge th with the s in which it has been : of greens blend with browns and r sandy tea the sun- set tints that aureate the Golden Gate and cerulean blue that reflects the tones of the skies above. It is a poetical conception: a dreamy, radiant glowing that en- velops the practical detail of ground and dimension, with the glorious in- vestiture of some new creation of enchantment by the fabled god of light. A To handle superlatives with con- viction is the particular ability of a Carlyle or a circus vress agent. Be- tween these twohe:lremes of m_v.tel- lectual effort the average writer makes a sorry mess. When the bald statement is made that the exposi- tion lighting is an achievement in the superlative everything has been said. It is a step ahead of any- thing that has been attempted. On the entir. area of the exposition— except alone in the Zone, where a carnival atmos- phere is sought—there is not an arc light or an in- candescent to fret the eve Flood and indirect light- ing have been developed to an extent where the facades. colonnades, tow- ers and domes of the mightv palaces glow un- der the subdued ravs of concealed lights as they do by day. There are eight colors used in the exposition scheme and it is on these rich tones and tints that the lichts nlav with en- chantine effect. Traver- tine, a buff or old ivery suceessfvl imitation of Ttalian Travertine stone iz the foundation color of the exposition. Aeainst this iz wused French green, in lattices. flower tubs, curbing of grass plats, oxidiz cop- per green, a peculiar mottled ~reen used on ten of the domes to give the effect of age and afford a pleasing though subdued contrast with the sky: blue green: pinkish red gree used on the flagpoles: wall red, in three tones, found in the backgrounds of colonnades, niches, arches, sculpture: yellow-golden- orange. largely used in enriching the Travertine and in deepening shadow effec cerulean and Oriental blue, verging upon green and used in ceil- ngs and vavlted recesses. coffers. and in the background of ornamenta- tion: prav and verde antique To these colors all artists emplov- ed at the exposition were restricted In harmony with these colore are the lighting effects. Throwing forth in mellow, incarnadined relief a lofty platform of columns here, or empha- sizing the cloistered depths of a re- cessed colonnade there, the beams and rays bathe the undulating opal- escent expanse in a shifting, shim- mering kaliedoscope. Centered on the two dominating sculptured grouos—the Nations of tje East and the Nations of the West-®are search- lights which lift these Homeric groups avart from their architee- tural environment and from a dis- tance the illusion is complete of the theme on which the exposition is founded: the meetings of the na- tions of the world. The mighty elephant with brilliant howdah that centers the one group seems march- ing, with attendant Arabs. Shieks and Mohameddans, across the Court of the Universe, to meet the advane- ing prairie schooner and cowboys, Indians and pioneers which a grouped around the ereat wagon of the companion group. It is precisely as though one saw, silhouetted in evening russets against the horizon, the living cavalcades. Elsewhere spraying and playing fountains are centered in radiance; individual bits of sculpture picked out by a vagrant ray in the foliage; fluttering standards and gonfalons in the colors of red, orange and blue; while high in the heavens, fire. works release them, the flags of all the nations float downward with the breeze, followed in their course by detective searchlights. From the Aurora to the last tiny beam of cardinal that seeks out a sequestered nook and illuminates some appropriate sculptured figure from the Arabian nights the illusion of forgotten dreams of childhood's embowered, empurpled visualization of faryland and fable, is complete, It is something that long will lnger, vision by night that bursts in under the release keys of Mr, Ryan’s magic switchboard.