Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, May 2, 1909, Page 19

PART THREE HALF-TONE PAGES 1 TO 4 A PAPER FOR THE HOME OMAHA BEE YOUR MONEY'S WORTH VOL. XXXVIII—-NO. »ifi. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 2, 1909. SINGLE COPY FIVE CEk MIRACLE OF BANISHING DARKNESS FROM MODERN CITY. How Man Has Adapted One of Nature’s Great Forces to His Needs and Turns the God of Night to Flight Before the Glowing Filament of the Incandescent Lamp T is not set down in the bill of particulars whether old man Diogenes went out with his ancient lantern in the daytime or in the night hours. Neither is the conclusion of his search for an honest man recorded; but it seems certain that if the old Athenian codger had been provided with a portable light in a small gl bulb he would at least have been saved considerable trouble and weariness of soul. Given the lighting conditions existing today, Diog. would have been able to find many an honest man ~+in Omaha, at least. This Is sald advisedly; for, if we cut out the rich man who can’t get into heaven any easler than a clumsy camel can gct through the eye of a needle, we still have the work- ers, hustl! home-makers, too busy making a living to have any time for cunning tricks, too tired by honert lab to give rascality a thcu If it Is 1¢ that evil thrive best in darkness, Omaba ought to be, as it 1s, as freé as any man's town from the blights that thrive in the dark, The city is well lighted, except, pessibly, in far outlying districts. Btrect, store, basement, humble Home, palace, front, cornice and dome—the witchery of Edison's puzzle and plaything 1s over all and brightening life immensely. 1t'has become, in an especially large sense, the handmaid of mod- ern business; and art, aloof and dlgnined, scorns not its illumi- naling aid. As an arc light is to a tallow dip, 8o is the store lighting of to- day compared to the store lighting of twenty-five, or even twenty, years ago. And as the boy's bon- fire is to a skyscraping conflagra- tlon, so was the ornamental light- ing of that day compared to what is accomplishe¢ now without at- tracting any attention to speak of, Village street lamps today give a true pleture of what i{llumination of the highways amounted to in the days of our fathers; and what a contrast are the elevated gleams that fling their effulgence for two blocks in either direction. Utllity is the first consideration that attaches to lights. Ar- tistic use of lights for ornamentation was, of course, practiced to some extent from the earliest ages, in a way that satisfied the very slightly developed wants in that direction of the rushlight generations. Today we find architects giving evidence of their beauty-imbued -souls by the cleverest use of lights to bring out wall and ceilling tones, or to make a pilaster or an esthetic ‘ranny give the effect it was planned to have. So, in most mod- ern buildings we find utility possibly secondary to ornamenta- tion; and architectural illumination holding the admiring mind, while we momentarily forget that there are any: merely utili- tarfan reasons for so much light. Animated lights, too-—revolving, alternating, playing a dozen tricks with the eye-——have become so common that we are half the time unconscious of them, though gazing on them nightly. It is conservatively estimated that something in the neighborhood of 40,000 electric lights are used in Omaha street signs, as decorations for bulldings, and for what may be called purely advertising pur- poses. Shortly there will be added several thousand more, because @8 the time for various conventions comes this class of lighting will be enlarged. or interfor lighting of Omaha business places of all kinds the number of arcs and incandescents run over 210,000, with more being added every day in new stores and factories, and in rebuilt and enlarged buildings. Only one large store in Omaha makes its own electric 1ight. Theaters and louges, saloons, ball rooms, hotel lobbies—these and other similar places where folk gather in large pumbers, or where custom is attracted by light and its reflected glories, are ever adding something to their lighting bill. Emula- Hon of fetching effects, competition for public attention, are the Impelling causes; and the general community gets in on the bene- fit and the beauty, while the proprietors gain in their feeliag of personal satisfaction, and the electric light company has more business. Speaking of the electric light company, it has grown with the ety perhaps more evenly Yhan any other quasi-public concern. One man connected with the company sald: “The whole institution gould have been put in a mighty small space when we started. At that time we ran along very acceptably with about 1,700-horse power, while today we have to use continually over 9,000-horse power to keep up with the demand.” The same man pointed out that in twenty years there has been brought about a reduction in cost of electricity of probably better than 50 per cent. This reduction In cost largely accounts for the vastly increased utilization of the commodity the company sells Stretched out as it is, the copper cable and wire used to carry current and hold lights in Omaha covers a great many hundred miles. It carries death in every foot of its length daily and hourly, yet 18 one of man’s greatest servants night and day. By a twist of a button, or a push of the finger, presto!—there is light, power, heat, lifting impulse; dead things throb and jump. Mysterious, puszzling, undefined, the genii of the eleetric bulb is the most pow ful, yet the tamest, of modern mechanical alds to life and comfort. Spectacular street lighting, as distinguished from street signs, treason and is about to make its debut in Omaha. It will be seen first, prob- ably, on the “500 Ginger block,” between Howard and Jackson streets. It is a plan that has become very popular in St. Paul, Min- neapolis and some other cities, and will very likely be as popular in Omaha as it has proved elsewhere., This plan contemplates or- namental iron poles with clusters of large lights on top, three or four to a block When first brought into use, something like a quarter of a cen- tury ago, the incandescent globe contained a bamboo stick, very highly carbonized. That was the first carbon filament. In the tungsten light of today, as seen in many places in Omaha, the fila- ment is a very decided contrast. to this first material. It is a metal- ONE OF BRANDEIS SHOW WINDOWS.—Photographed by Its Own Light. lized filament, the very highest type of the electrician’s product. The tungsten filament i{s made by mixing tungsten, a mineral sub- stance, with something else, and heating the mixture until it be- comes a sort of mush. This metallic mush is then forced through a diamond die, a process that is not very old, and comes out a hair- like thread. Under the microscope this almost invisible thread looks like a saw blade, and until a more perfect process is developed the tungsten wire will remain somewhat brit- tle when not lighted, but in action it consti- tutes the nearest ap- proach to daylight yet discovered It is claimed for this light that under its white glow colors can be matched, thus making it in demand in dry goods stores and other places where a true light must be had. Whereas the older style filament used 3.6 watts, the tungsten uses only 1% watts. It is 66 per cent more efficient, and when the first cost of tungsten bulbs is brought down to nearly the cost of the old style it must come into general use. Its inventors and owners are work- ing with that end in view. At present the:filament in a tungsten light is anchored at both ends, in hairpin shape. Three large tung- stens are considered better than one arc, and they use only 300 watts, against 460 for the arc, representing a saving of 33 1-3 per cent. . Visitors from all sections of the country who have Omaha during the fall festivities attending the annual advent of Ak-Sar-Ben have been free in giving expression to their belief that a more beautiful or better arranged illumination of the streets does not occur anywhere in the country. lights, and for tho arches over the street intersections, between 6,000 and 10,000 lights are used. They are of varying sizes and colors, and generously disposed in every possible place designed to ald in magnifying the general glorious effect. From the tip of the court house dome and the top of the city hall tower to the cornice of the lowly ancient landmark, the electricians reach and utilize about everything that can be made to carry a light and hold a wire. tarried in For the strings and festoons of During this joyous harvest festival of the capital of Qui- vera's king electricity is as un- confined in its ramblings through the upper atmosphere as is joy on terra firma; unconfined, yet thoroughly under control from below. From a million angles the lights of Ak-Sar-Ben time throw their effulgence over the thronging multitudes and shoot their gleams with persistent daz- zle into eyes that reflect back the glamour of their radiance. These later day generations pass along almost unheeding of the delecta- ble spread that sways, weaves and scintillates overhead and on a'l sides. They walk over rails that rumble loudly in answer to th ewhir of the dynamos far away; the dodge trams and mo- biles propelled by the same un- seen, never ceasing force; they prance along under wires charged with death, and for hours on hours they revel back and forth amid the mysterious waves of the most terrible thing that ever has been used under man's mastery to contribute to his sport as well as his need. KING CORN LOOKING WEST ON FARNAM STREET FROM SEVENTEENTH. Sitting in the theater, the observer ot the stage for whom ‘‘the play’s the thing,” relapses into forgetfulness of the finicky, flowing, potent fluid that is contributing so greatly to present enjoyment, and lending fairylike effect to combinations of the commonest materials. It “hills are green fdr away,” no less is a stage a glittering picture of throbbing beauty when it is alive with the life and radiating the spirit of electricity, which even Menlo’s master is not able to define. In the theaters of Omaha, out front and in behind, under the stage and aloft in the flles and bridges, are approximately 6,000 lights. Many are concealed from sight, merely hinting their pres- ence by a softened glow that does not obtrude enough to excite curi- osity as to its souree; others are shaded; more are loose, on exten- ANOTHER OF THE BRANDEIS SHOW WINDOWS. slon cords; but in their thousands they have become so much a part of theaters, scenery and stages that we wonder how our forbears ever got along without them. Away up in the fanlight electricity makes play that enhances the real play, and along the wall and around the galleriés it skips and throbs and bursts in brilliance. Moving pictures, speaking flgures that one could swear are talking hard and fast, in a misty language unheard by any but the fairies of the queen of light—these marvelous contrivances are sponding to the com- mand of the switch or button that flipped over, pressed or re- leased, with instant re- sult. Outside the same power thrills through wires and bulbs ex- posed to rain, snow, cold and heat with an impunity not to be at- tempted by any other agency we wot of, The street s electricity’s playground for large frolics; the theater is chosen setting for es- thetic demonstration of artists’ dreams. There are a hundred and one schemes methods used in pro- ducing ornamental advertising and reflector lighting. When one looks at a bunch of snakes chasing each other through the face of a street sign, the’ flashing reptiles aie not moving at all. The ef- fect {s produced by stationary lamps and a high speed flasher, by making and breaking contact very rapidly. There is but one really revolving sign on the stréets of Omaha. all others only appearing to revolve; but the eleverness of trained electricians must be cred- ited with results just the same. The single revolving sign is an experiment tried by some ambitious electrician, but the approved method now is the broken contact. The number of electric street signs in Omaha is about 170, large and small. Some of them are huge affairs, many giving a pictorial effect, while others are confined to but a half dozen or 8o lights. To say 170 doesn’t sound very big, but when the por- tion of that number on Farnam street alone are in operation the effect is quite gorgeous. This custom has transformed acres of gloomy shadow into glowing lanes of light. It has switched the scintillating brilliance of sun- light into hitherto hidden holes, crannies and corners and is the means of giving a most pleasura- ble gensation to the eve from every point of the compass. How great an attraction and wonder the electric street lights really are can only be realized when a ruralist who has never seen them is brought under their spell. They sre a never falling source of wonder to them, until the novelty wears off. A local policeman tells of one man from the country who had held a so- clal session with friends in the afternon, having disposed of his business in the morning. When 1e went on the street and butted tis eye agalst a gyrating group of what were apparently snakes in an elevated lighted box, he viewed them serlously for a few moments, then sald abruptly, “I'm going home!” And he want home in some doubt about his heretofore approved capacity as an occasional practitioner at the or There is in Omaha a merchant of very particular taste, who alms to have his store just a lit- tle better lighted than the busi- EFFECT ON THE PLATE. LOQKING EAST ON FARNAM STREET ¥ ness places of his neighbor, He {8 lavish in his expenditure for lights and appears to be satisfied with results. “Light is cheering and warming,” says this merchant, “and that there is a psychological influence in its radiance I am well convinced.” “Does It have the effect of making people spend their money more freely than they otherwise would?" “I fncline very much to the notion that it does. Compare the trade and the growth of the well-lighted, cheerful store with the lack of business and the standstill character of the place lighted by lamps, for instance. One is alive; the other s dend.” In the largest department stores of Omaha the yearly expense for light will run up to probably $15,000 or more: still there is no thought of cutting down In- stead, there is a progressive de- velopment of the lighting féature, not only signs, but in purely artistic effects. An architect plans a central feature, let us say, picked out in white and gold, with oceans of chance for decoration. During the brightness of un« dimmed daylight each little beauty grot can be seen and will call out the admiration it was designed to tempt But twilight draws near, or on a dark, dreary day, the lighting switches are all on, and & cheery, soulful atmosphere I8 at once created. Such a scene is not likely to be quitted very quickly for a muddy, misty outdoors. Verily shimmering goods in a big store does help wonderfully in strength- ening trade. Still, it would be un- fair to speak of the generousness of store lighting plans as having no greater basis than momentary «@lation of the customer. There is a rivalry among great mer- chants to have a handsome com- mercial home that it costs many thousands of dollars to gratify. Street, sign and store lighting, or illumination of dwellings, does ‘ot by any means comprise all the practical uses to which electricity is put, merely for furnishing light. In church. chancels the candle, long honored, has given wa; electric bulbs cleverly placéd, in circles, rows and clusters, in crosses and stars, and in reflectors. At the office of the electric company are bulbs con- taining old-fashioned filaments, some of which were used for many years. ‘“‘Here is a bulb,” said an employe, “that was in use for a dozen years or more.’ - “Where?"” was the question, for the thing seemed impossible. “In a chapel, where it was used for perhaps half an hour or %o, now and again. Under such circumstances, there is no good reason why a bulb containing the most recent filament should not last for fifty years.” It was said of some man that he could “illuminate the highest pinnacle of fame.” This was spoken in the metaphorical sense; but there are men working quietly every day in Omaha who can illuminate the topmost tip of any old pinnacle with no trouble worth mentioning. Wherever a wire can be thrown and fastened, light can be turned in any volume desired; in strings or small clus- ters of 4s, the very littlest bulbs, or 10s, 168, 328 or the sunlike 80s, three of which surpass an arc light. Electricians can wreath a dome in almost as they produce the half-concealed, soft, reflected and widely diffused light that is often noted in large dining rooms and other vaulted spaces. Or, if you do not want the light to come direct from above, the clever electrical designer will arrange his plan so that your lights will be dropped in a sort of reversed dome and reflected back against a white ceiling. Many a handsome banquet or ball room is lighted in this fashion, most artistically, and with the finest effect as to color scheme develop- ment, Dome lamps are having a large vogue, in some lines of busi. ness, as well as in homes. And portable lamps, with all sorts of art glass fixings, are brought into daily and nightly use by jewelers, art dealers and others who seek to have their patrone edueated to appreciate the really meritorious points of their merchandise, often overlooked. It some to know that probably 1,500 electric flatirons are being used in Omaha; not all in laundries, either. Not only is machinery driven by electricity, and its parts clearly dis- played to the operator, but cutting knives in factories are pushed along by the same hidden force; washing machines are operated by small motors, by attaching a bulb to the electric light fixture; and some men of the right turn of mind having complete cooking outfite installed. These are a rarity as yet, however, Cellar and basement lighting has come to that underground 1s no hardship, on the eyes at nels, storerooms, even sewers, in as splendor as casily may interest pass where to least; and tun- are made as light as day. If Erebus located in Omaha, a man could step in with an electric bulb on an extension cord and make the region like unto the day for the most groping soul. At the Omaha Electrical show which opens on next Wednesday all the wonders of the science will be shown to visitors by experts who know the inside workings of the modern miracle that {8 transforming life in all its aspects and the magic of its application to man’s daily needs. work wer ROM SEVENTEENTH-—THE ARC LIGHTS SPOIL THE § S— light shining on beautiful, ** ‘<