The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1907-08-21

BUFFALO, Aug, aO--The night illu,
mination OF the mighty torrent at Nj
agra Falls IA now assured and the plan
Tor lighting the mist and water Is pn'
questionahly the greatest feat ever con
ceised in electrical illumination. The
great falls, bathed In dazzling light sur.
pass in grandeur and spectacular effect
anything OF It's kind ever seen before.
W. d. A. Ryan, illuminating engineer.
has the work In charge and the falls
were illuminated for the first time the
night of August 18th, 1907, The light
ing scheme for this enormous undertak.
ing is on scale never attempted before
and a new invention the Color Seintil.
lator, is utilized for producing color ef'
fects which make the falling water far
more beautiful and impressive by night
than by day.
A battery OF nearly ffty searchlights
several OF them the largest of their kind
and capable OF throwing beam OF white
light l25 miles, are located below the
falls, A portion Of the projectors are
set down near the waters edge oppo.
site Goat Island so as to play rising
illumination on both the American and
Canadian Falls. Another battery is
placed on the high ground on the Cana
dian side to throw phnging light on
the falling water and flying mist, The
projectors are powerful enough to cover
every inch of the torrent with bril-.
liant white light All alone the big
searchlightS are an exhibition worth
travelling far to see, but when used In
connection with the new scintillators
the wonderful effect which can be pro,
duced beggars description.
The color scintillator consists OF
net work OF stem pipes which will be
used to augment the cloud effects Of the
flying mists. In front Of the big light
projectors are mounted wheels contain.
ing large gelatin disks which are revolv.
ed slowly. With the changing OF the
color disks the beams OF light are varie.
gated with Kaleidoscope effect produc'
ing color scheme on the mist and water
only exeelled by the Great Northern
Lights. This apparatus was but re-
Gently perfected by the engineers OF the
General Electric Company and has never
been used before here or abroad al.
though it was given Il thorough test a
few months ago. The color attach.
ments tint the waters calmne crimson,
orange, yellow, green, blue violet of the
purest shades and the rising clouds OF
mist blend the colors into hues and tints
like a glorious sunset, 1t is even pos.
sble to produce an artificial aurora bo.
reals and the colorel beams reaching
far into the sky, will be visible in TO.
ronto and Rochester in such volume as
to cause comment. The program for
Illumination will be changed every night
and in the winter time the color effects
on the ice, snow and frost coated trees
Of the surrounding country will be spec.
tacuIar indeed.
The entire proposition is to illuminate
Niagara IN q distinct and digniiicd man.
ner on a scale in keeping with the sur.
roundings. The possibilities OF the ap.
paratus installed are limited only by the
imagination of the manpulators. 1t is
possible to produce colored figures,
snakes and dragons, flags and thous-,
and ard one different novelties. The
apparatus possesses the spectacular ef'
feet Of fireworks on grand scale with
out the fire hazard and danger.
For many years it was planned to II.
Illuminate the great falls but no scheme
was deemed practical until the General
Electric Company submitted plans to
utilize two batteries OF searchlights with