The herald., 1897-11-04
Columbia's New Tank Is
Lighted FromB Beneath
THE LIBARARY's NOVEL LIGHT
ODD FACTS ABOUT ONE OF OUR
POPULAR COLLEGES
Great Book Room to Be Suffused With
Radiance by Reflection From
Hidden Sources

New York is immensely proud OF Its
new Columbia college, into which has
gone some Of the best money of its
millionaires The new Columbia excels
all others in it's up-to-date oddities If
not in its number of students Members
of the new classes find themselves sur
rounded by wonders that make them
fancy themselves in a fairyland of lore.
When a student at the new Columbia
university plunges into the big swim
ming tank in the gymnasium he will
think he is bathing in the waters of the
Klondike, for he will splash through a
sea of gold. The only light on the big
gymnasium floor where the tank is will
come from the tank, and it is expected
Nhat from the water there will be diff
fused over the apartment all the light
that is necessary for exercising and
dressing. Powerful electric lights
placed along the sides and the bottom of
the tank, not directly in it, but opening
Into it through apertures, will make the
water one mass of luminosity, which
will send its glow throughout the whole
apartment.
If the saying, IT have seen the fire,
am warm" holds good. the swimmer
will not feel chilly, no matter how cold
the water in the tank may be. 1t will
certainly be a novel sensation, this
swimming about in blaze of golden
water. Also it is new device for light
ing room.
TO BE LINED WITH MICA ALSO
This swimming tank will be 100 feet
wide, and what the learned architects
call "apsidal in form. The dictionary
gives the definition of "apsidal' as being
''formed like the apse of a church.
Semi circular is as near as the lay mind
can get to it, but that is not quite COR
rect. All the sides and the bottom of
this glorified tank is lined with glitter
ing white mica, which, of course, adds to
its luminosity.
After swimming in golden water the
student can pass into the rowing room
and row on a tiled floor, which is an
other strange thing, but not to those ia
miliar with gymnasiums. The rowing
apparatus is to be one of the finest in
the world, and the mimic oars will act
just like real ones, and it is hoped train
the Columbia crews for fresh victories
Another great and novel scheme for
lighting is to be put in use in the library
The great main room of the library is
to be flooded with light so deftly that no
man can see the source from which the
light comes. 1t will pervade the whole
apartment, and yet no lamps, electric
or otherwise, will be seen. There will
simply be that one suffusing glow which
makes the interior of the place look as if
somewhere a bright sun were shining
through the room.
Away up in the dome Of the library
one will see white globe shining like
a moon, but the light has not it's genesis
from there. That is only a medium.
That great globe will have dead white
surface like cloth of white, and upon
1t will be concentrated eight powerful
electric lights. These lights will be hid
den in the corners of the galleries of
the four alcoves, which are up and
among the arches.
When the rays from these lamps
strike the great white globe it will shed
them off, not suddenly, like a reflector,
but with a soft diffusiveness that Will
cause them to inundate the whole place
with clear light.
Thus there will be light all over the
big room, and no particular point visi-
BILE from which it comes. Even the white
moon up in the dome will be so mild IN
its refulgence that one can look at it
without having his eyes dazzled. There
are many other innovations which viii
be embodied in the arrangement of the
collection of buildings which are beirg
erected upon the Harlem Heights for
the new home of New York's greatest
institution.
HARRY GERMAINE.