National Republican., 1883-11-23
PROTECTED BR111lANcY.

The Midnight Darkness or the District
10 bo Turned Into iRht-HurryIng
Through Arrangements for Electric IL
Illumination.
Mr. A. A. Hayes, tho agent Of the United
States Electric Light company, now domiciled
in Washington, was interviewed yesterday
by REPUBLICAN representative.
What time" asked the reporter, do you
expect to get your enterprise in working or
der p
~ have boon delayed in making the pre-
liminary exhibition by the inability of the
Boron Electric Manufacturing company, of
Cleveland to prepare my machine. The
electric light has made much more progress
in the west than in tho east, strange as IL
may seem, and this manufacturing !, firm
in Cleveland has been ovorhowcd
with orders for machinery. But they have
at last completed mine, and IL is now In tho
Smithsonian. My electrician will be hero
tomorrow morning, and we shall then pro-
coed without delay to give preliminary ex-
hibition at the national museum. We shall
score the battery with electricity, and then,
lighting corona of arc lights, remove all
connections between the machine and the
battery, and put in operation n number of in
candescent lights. The battery will be on
| the floor in plain sight of everybody, and we
shall remove all connection between il and
| the machine in the presence of the specta-
tors, so everyone there can see that the in
candescent lights keep on without any aid
| from the dynamo" i'n
"When will this take place2" ELl
"Just as soon as we can hurry up tho ad-
| ustment of the appliances Wo shall com
mence ON tho work to-day and have it all ar
ranged in few days. We shall invite large
number of representative people to be pres
ent, that the merits of our work may be clearly
seem"
"YOn propose lighting the city with these
lights%
"Yes, and shall do so at the earliest prac-
ticable moment 1 shall not specify any par
ticular day, but think / will be ready in Jan
uary of next year. We wish to obtain the
formal consent of the authorities. We shall
put corona of arc lights on the Washing
ton monument which will enable you to
read newspaper at the south front
of the treasury at midnight as
clearly and easily as at 12 o'clock
in tho daytime. BY the same illumination
you can tell the time from white faced
watch as far north as Dupont circle. The
| Washington monument is admirably adapted
for such an exhibition, being 410 feet high,
and our arc will be 80 feet higher. The tall
est tower from which an electric light is now
displayed is in Cleveland, $50 feet high, or
100 feet less than the present height of the
monument here"
Respecting your design of lighting the
city, or portion of it, what part of the town
will you select"
II think tho northwestern, around Connec-
ticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts
avenues, and Dupont circle Wash hington,
by the way is the best city in the world to
display tho capacities and advantages of the
electric light. Take tho Smithsonian
grounds, for example. They can be made as
bright as daylight itself In fact, we can
give them day in the darkest night"
"Do you propose to got your power from
the Great Falls?"
ultimately, and at no distant dav. In the
meantime we have secured abundance of
water power much nearer the city"
'ln lighting portions of the city, how will
you manage"
ave shall have an arc light ON towers speci-
ally erected We shall do this in order that
the people of the city may have ample time to
determine by ocular demonstration how
much cheaper, advantageous, and satisfactory
is the electric light furnished by my COM
pany."
"Do the people of the city take kindly to
your system of lights" 4e..
"Yery. So great is tho favor manifested to-
wards our enterprise that we shall find it diff
ficult to promptly meet all the demands upon
| us at first" .-- .'.' M ~