The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-11-04
LIGHTING UP LIBERTY.
A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY OF FIRE
WORKS AT BEDLoE'S ISLAND.

The Statue Presents a Most Beautiful
Spectacle After Night, But There Win
Be Still Further Improvements In the
Lightlng-How 1t Is Accomplished.
New YoRK, Nov. 3.-The torch that Liberty
holds so high above the bay blazed out last
night, and flood of white light was thrown
around her. a thousand yards from Bedloe's
Island the Goddess revealed perfect outline,
but was not sharply defined, yet she looked
more tender and womanly than in the glare
of day. But even at this distance the arm
that holds the torch was shadowed. At half
mile the pedestal loomed bright as it is at a
stones throw, but the head and arms had
disappeared, and there was shadow over
the statue.
A mile distant the glory Of the pedestal
quite eclipsed that of the figure, and at the
battery, which is two and one-fourth miles
from Bedloes Island, the spectator who had
not seen the goddess by day was not able to
make out her outlines. Lieut. Mills, who
had invented the system of lighting, said last
evening that the lighting of the outside OF
the statue is in the experimental stage, and
that he expects to improve it until it will re-
veal the figure perfectly. Whether it viii be
possible 10 illuminate SO large q surface Of
bronze aid produce a sharp effect without
painting the bronze light color is, however,
question 10 be solved
Everything was in readiness on Bedloe's
Island at dusk, and although the great torch
had been lighted again and again recently
with cloth bound around the lenses, Lieut..
John Mills, on the lighthouse board, just be-
! fore dus. ordered it lighted once moro to
test the electrical connection. For five
minutes it blazed away under its covering.
| Then it Was extinguished, the covering was
| pulled off by workmen, and the statue was
ready for its long vigil
The torch is lighted by nine are lights ar
ranged in two horizontal circles, one inside
of the other. The lights are midway between
| the lenses set in the face OF the torch. There
are no lights in the circlet over the brow. To
illuminate the outer surface Of the statue
itself there are five S00-candle power electric
! lights in FIVE of the salient angles Of the for
tifcations surrounding the statue. Behind
each light ii a cylindrical paraDolic reflector,
by which the electric light is focused on the
pedestal and statue Each Of the electric
! lights are planted at four opposite points SO
| as to form = square in the eight-pointed star
which outlines the fortifcation. The fifth
! light is directly in front of the goddess
! precious brazen nose The rehectors are
| tilted to throw the light upward at an angle
! of about fortyflye degrees.
| From the sixteen arc lights which illu-
! minated the statue above and below, inside
and outside wires run to the dynamo in the
| engine room, which is in q brick vaulted
| chamber on the north of the fortihcation.
Here, as the hour of 7:30 approached, were
| Lieut.. Mills, in general charge of the light
I ming; Andrew j. Schlichter, in charge Of the
| dynamo and the electrical apparatus; Engi-
| neer George River, and Walter Scott fire.
man. just besore the hour to light up the
statue, steamers silently arrived in the dark
ness, and tnoS their position in a great semi
circle around the island from the southwest
| to northeast. First one steamer set up O
screech theu another, until there was an
unearthly rumpus so deafsning that the peo-
ple on the island had to yell to make each
other understand what they were saying. In
the engine room the engine had been started
at half speed to get it warm for action.
Schlichter had disconnected wire from the
/ dynamo, thus breaking the circuit until the
/ appointed time to light the torch. The en-
gine was stopped.
Then Lieut. Mills with his watch open an
nounced 1T exactly 1880 o'clock all ready, and
9chlichter slipped the copper wire into place
and completed the circuit Scott started the
engine LET her go Slow" said Schlichter
FIRST, and then he gave the word for the en-
Rine to go at full speed The hubbub around
the island redoubled as the tiny spark In the
torch grew and grew until it flashed across
the bay. Then there was seen from the
shores Of Bedloe's Island a marvellous spectre
In fire works which the throngs on shore
ought to have seen instead of the half hun
dred people who assembled on the end of the
government dock under the shadow Of the
statue.
As early as . o'clock there set in a steady
stream of people going batteryward and it
met and bumped into and josted the crowd
that was moving honeward from work until
the sidewalks in Broadway were jammed full
and overfowed into the CUTTERS There was
q wide open space kept cleared In the rear Of
the battery wall where the fireworks were to
be let off, and the crowd, as it arrived,
dashed vainly against the strong Gordon of
policemen which had been drawn around
this reserved space and jammed in close
against the line and quickly spread back in
compact mass, like the backwatar Of a mill
dam.
Brilliant electric lights were blazing on top
Of the Washington building, and its roof, as
well as the roof Of the produce exchange and
all other roofs IN the neighborhood on which
anybody could stand, were soon swarming
with men and women. Women with escorts
and women without escorts and women with
babies in their arms and children tugging at
their gowns were wedged tightly in the great
mass on the ground, and waited patiently In
the discomfort for the spectacle TO begin.
From dark on the crowd continued to grow
rapidly in size, until $780, when the display
began, It had turned about all the available
space in Battery park into almost q solid
mass Of humanity. The white pedestal Of
the statue showed out with phosporsscOn.
glow under the fierce electric light which
poured upon it, and tho statue itself loomed
up great dark shadow against the sky. The
water OF the bay was calm. and reflected
every light that fell upon It like . mirror.
At precisely the hour fixed there came q
burst OF kaleidoscope lights from Bedloes
and Governors Islands and in an instant the
air was flled with flying fire balls OF every
color Of the rainbow. At short intervals
along the parapet Of the fort at Bedlos's
Island and along tho sea wall Of Governors