The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-08-17
TURNED NIGHT INTO DAY.
Beautiful Examinations of the Salt
Lake Electric Supply Company.

Beautiful Examinations of the Salt
Lake Electric Supply Company.
Salt Lake City has moved for nearly
week in the brilliant haze of mid
night Nominations, and in every part
of the city there has been ample evil
dence of the creative genius which has
turned a trade into an art and bent
insulated wire and common glass
globes into a poem.
When the magnificent Nominations
burst into life on the first night of the
electrical display there was one piece
which attracted especial attention.
This was the brilliant decoration OF
the Salt Lake Electric Supply COM
pany building at Isl South Main street.
The firm was awarded the contract for
the entire street illumination, but in
the list of beautiful decorations which
added to the spIendors of the night,
this one stands alone, unsurpassed and
indispensable. II was a daring and
artistic production and q credit to the
brain which conceived it.
Many hundreds of globes were used
in the illumination and it had the ap-
pearance of a pyrotechnical set-piece,
rather than of an electrical display. The
entire front of the building was used
in working out the details of the elab-
| crate design. An invisible wire frame
extending the width of the building
supported the colossal letters which
flashed a white and purple greeting to
the guests and spelled the words ''Wei-
come, Elks."
Under this greeting was a livid
square, divided into three parts by
rows of incandescent lamps. In the
! first square was a ma mmoth clock with
blazing hands pointing to the hour of
II. The dial had white and purple
| figures. and these were encircled with
band of light In the next square
was an American flag. About 400
lights were used in carrying out this
handsome design, which flashed and
quivered like the contents of jewel
| casket.
In the next blazing square was a
| beautiful elk head, tossed in the atti-
! tude of listening. In the elaboration
of the head there was not the chance
| for the massing of light and colOrS
| apparent in the flag, but there was the
same artistic contrast and accuracy of
detail which gave effectiveness to the
| other figures. The head was worked
with white lights and the antlers in
purple, the whole making striking
picture. Each figure was emblematical
/ of the order
Under the main design were festoons
of snow white lights, which encircled
a shield with the words, Electric
| DynamOs and Motors" Then in regu-
| lar order followed other gracefully
| looped festoons of cOlored light, while
| a row of pink globes extended across
| the store front at the bottom of the
| design and finished the effect. Auto
matte attachments operated switches
which turned the figures out at regu-
I lar intervals. In the same way the
| lights were turned on a few at time.
until the whole design stood out in
| conspicuous and Incompatible beauty,
/ a proud and radiant testimonial to the
! skill and ingenuity of the modern cleo
! trical engineer
| The decoration was designed by r
| w. Nicol. the president and manager
/ of the company, and the entire city
| illumination was carried out under the
direction of the superintendent, Fred
c Walker. with an extra force of the
| best wiremen. For its store design the
| firm received the first prize awarded
| for the finest decoration. The firm
| earned it. 1t was worth several dec
orations. 1t is one of the most eff
/ fective pieces of work attempted in the
! city along this line, and il is to be
4 regretted that il cannot remain per-
manent fixture.
/ But the store decoration was only one
l of the designs worked out by the hrm.
! The city itself was rooted with hght.
l Wires were strung the length of the
I
/ walls of about twenty feet double fes-
/ toons of wire were draped from curb
/ 10 curb. This network of wire carried
/ inCandescent globes two feet apart. In
the sunlight they cleaned and spar
kled like imprisoned dew drops, while
I at night the streets took on the beauty
/ of the northern aurora. twenty miles
] of wire were used
At the intersection of each street
! was a monster set-piece Of marvellous
/ beauty. The great flag at the corner
: of Main and Third South had SEQ col
| ored lights massed with the profuslon
of a floral design. At the next corner
was an elk head in listening attl-
| tu5e White lights for the head ana
neck and branching antlers of purple
lights added to the showiness OF the
/ design. At the next corner was huge
/ star forming a pendent for an arch
| which had the word Utah worked
into il with letters of fire. At the head
of Main street. towering high above
all other decorations, was the master
piece.
over acc white and purple lights and
| was strung with a half-inch steel caole
from the highest point of the Deseret
| News building TO support on the
I Templetou building opposite rms ng-
nre was twenty feet long and thirty
! Fae+ high and has the distinction Of
being the biggest elk ever made for a
decoration of this kind. From ITS
lofty position. ninety feet above the
| ground il had the appearance OF
Standing on the crest of the distant
hills.
White and purple lights flashed
! welcome to the ElNs everywhere. but
nowhere was il emphasized with more
imposing effect than at the corner OF
/ First South and State streets, where
a monster hand supported a brilliant
.sWelcome'' and pointed with blazing
finger to the opulence of light and color
which formed a perfect bank of light
at and beyond the quarters of the
order.
one remarkable feature when the