Theatre Design & Technology - May 1969 - 5

Street Theatre in Philadelphia during the
1878-79 season: "Electric lighting had not
been invented; when the gas man had lighted
the 'borders' at seven-thirty P.M. with a
torch and long pole, and his 'foots' in front
of the curtain, and turned them 'down to
the blue: all illumination was ready, except
for the calcium lights of blended gas from
the red and black cylinders." 17 The dangers of this operation are described by
Fitzgerald:
With th~ system of I ighting the scenes in
theatres, it speaks well for the constant care
exercised that more conflagratIons do not
occur.
A row of jets some thirty or forty
long, and 1\'\'0 or three hundred in number,
are hoisted alaI!, protected behind by a sort
of curved metal screen, and in front by a
very open wire net. The arl1Qunt of heat
and flame may be conceived. The lighting
even of these jets, which is done from
below with a light rocl of enormous length,
is a matter of danger, as a mere contact
with the canvas may set all in a blaze, for
the lighter has to carry his rod along every
jet. 18

The air audiences breathed in theatres
lighted with gas was abominable. Temperatures in the auditorium could be expected
to rise as much as thirty degrees during a
perform;Jnce. Theatre-goers always suffered
from headaches the next day, as the result
of semi-asphyxia that was an accepted part
of such a night's entertainment. 19 Some
comment on the ill effects of gas-lighted
theatres was published in the American
Architect in 1887:
.. At present the heated atmosphere and
products of combustion militate
strongly against the use of gas.

noxious

Gas footlights are a terrible ordeal to the
poor actor; unless well accustomed to it,
his eyes are worried \\lith the fI ickering
glare, and his throat parched up, at a distance of a few feet even, by the oppressive
heat and '/apors rising. 20

gas floats [footlights] were enclosed in glass
chimneys and later ones were sometimes
protected by ground glass or coloured glass
mediums; but the open jets (generally fishtail burners) used for wing I ights were not
always fenced even by wire guards." 23 A
number of theatres used a chain hung from
low standards across the front of the stage
between the foot I ight trough and the acting
area to prevent the train of an actress'
gown from swinging into the open gas
jets. These swags of chain had a certain
decorative value, and were retained in some
theatres long after the gas had been discarded. 24

1879, but the attempt failed. Belasco persisted as a pioneer in electric lighting, however. He and his chief electrician, Louis
Hartmann, were responsible for one of the
first thoroughly modern lighting installations
at San Francisco's Stuyvestant Theatre. 28

In addition to the obvious hazards, gas
lighting carried with it some difficulties that
were quite bizarre. A little extra pressure in
the gas mains, for example, would cause the
flames of the foot I ights to rise above the
glass chimneys. This sudden flare alone
was sometimes enough to bring a nervous
audience to its feet in a state of panic. 25
The gas tubing, stiff, unwieldy, and as
abundant backstage as electrical cable is
today, was also a source of trouble. "The
flexible tubes must be of sufficient strength
to resist pressure from without, that is, to
prevent anyone treading on the tube and extinguishing the gas, thus subsequently causing an escape." 26

All risk of fire is avoided by the leading
wires being thoroughly insulated, and small
pieces of lead wire being inserted into the
circuit wherever a branch wire leaves the
mains. These "safety-pieces" of lead are
chosen of such size that they will melt before the conductors themselves become sufficiently heated to cause any danger, and by
their melting the current is at once interrupted.
The system of electric lighting has now been
working at this theatre for a year and a half
without any accident, and has proved to pas·
sess many advantages over gas as appl ied
to the illumination of buildings of this description. Not the least among these are the
total absence of heat and vitiated air In the
house, and the length of time during which
the decorations will retain their freshness and
colour instead of becoming quickly faded and
tarnished, as would be the case were the old
system of gas adopted. 29

San Francisco made some of the earliest
uses of el ectric I ighting in the theatres of
the United States. The California Theatre experimented with calcium lights from the auditorium in 1870. They were considered especially effective in the Stalactite Palace
scene in Monte Cristo. Five years earlier,
the Metropolitan had used electric lights,
but only as a novelty, not as a replacement
for gas lighting. 27 David Belasco first tried
to use electric light at the California Theatre
in San Francisco from February 21 to 28,

Electric lighting had been installed at the
Savoy Theatre in London in December,
1881, at the direction of Mr. D'oyly Carte.
The following comment on the success of
that installation includes an interesting note
on the early development of fuses to protect the circuits, as well as some observations on the advantages of electricity over
gas:

Hartmann's THEATRE LIGHTING says of
this illustration (p. 7): "HIGHES TDEVELOPMENT OF THE GAS SYSTEM The Welsbach
burner, with its incandescent mantle, was
probably the last important step in this type
of lighting. It came in the final decade of
the nineteenth century. The jets of the
border light were close together so that when
the first was ignited the flame would jump
of its own accord along the entire row."

Even J. Cleveland Cady, the architect who
boasted he had never been inside a theatre
when he designed the Metropolitan Opera
House, must have heard how bad the air
became in auditoriums illuminated with gas:
"The products of gas combustion (if gas
is used), should be drawn off, as far as
possible, and not allowed to defile the air.
In an ill-ventilated house the long performances toward the last are hardly endurable-and are invariably followed by headaches the ensuing day... " 21 The Boston
Building Law in 1896 prescribed a system
of ventilation which would supply equal
amounts of fresh air for each gas light and
for each occupant of the auditorium. 22
Open flames were everywhere on the stage.
It is a mistake to assume that the flame
was always protected by a guard. "Earlv

[]ill[] THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

MAY, 1969

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