Theatre Design & Technology - May 1969 - 6

A full-scale experiment with the application
of electric lighting in theatres was carried
out at the Munich Exhibition in 1883. The
official report of the Exhibition was enthusiastic in its endorsement of the new
form of illumination: "With electric lamps,
in fact, fire risks are absolutely nil when
the installation has been well made."3o
When incandescent electric I ights first were
introduced in the theatres, they were often
used in combination with gas lighting, or
only in one part of the building. This was
the case at Wallack's new theatre in New
York in 1881. There was a magnificent gas
chandelier in the auditorium, with two hundred burners and a spread of fourteen feet.
Electric lights were used only on the outside
of the theatre. 31 The auditorium of the
Bijou Theatre in San Francisco was lighted
with a combination of electricity and gas in
1888. "On gallery, balcony and dress circle are eighty three-pronged jets; one burns
gas, the others the incandescent light. .. ".32
When Harrigan opened his new theatre in
New York in 1890, after having lost the
Comique to fire in 1884, he used both
electricity and gas in his auditorium. The
large central fixture had forty electric lights,
surrounded by a circle of gas jets for use
in emergencies. 33
The movement to install electricity went
forward rapidly during the 1880's. All lighting effects which had been possible with
gas could be reproduced with electricity, and,
especially in the summer, the reduction of
heat in the auditorium was a great advantage]4 Five New York theatres adopted
the new lighting system in 1889: Daly's
(foyer only), the new Union Square, Palmer's
the Star, and the Bijou. According to Percy
MacKaye, his father's New Lyceum Theatre
in New York was the first theatre in that
city to be equipped with electricity both for
the auditorium and for the stage. That was
in 1885. 35
When the Salt Lake City Playhouse installed
electricity, the safety measures which protected the house appear not to have been
extended to include theatre personnel: "The
first electric power was furnished by the
Railway Company. There were six lamps on
each side with five hundred volts, and it is
said that if ever the stage happened to be
wet and a man stepped on it, it would
knock him down-a trifling and humorous
incident which was repeated many times."36
John Drew wrote of the drawbacks associated with the early electric light in theatres:
Later, when elec ric ligh was irst Installed,
there was no plant in the theatre, the supply
coming 'rom the city power house.
Often he lights would go out, and the expla·
na ion was alwa 5 tha the \\ ere changing a
belt.
It was not very reassuring for the audience
to Sit in dar ness; nor was it comfortable for
the players, who had to come to a complete
standstill on the stage and were waiting for
the lights to come on. 37

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Gas borderlight: front and side elevations
Photo: Moynet. L 'ENVERS
THEA TRE

Electricity could be a hazard in the theatre
if it had been badly installed. The work of
some of the first electrical technicians was
incredible. Louis Hartmann suggested something about the quality of work being done
in the early days of electric light:
Electricity was in its infancy. Sockets were
made of wood; switching and cut·outs were
mounted on wood. To be an electrician all
one had to know was hat it took two wires
of opposite polarities to get light, and that
they had to be kept apart. There was no
inspection; and any method of wiring was ac·
ceptable so long as light was obtained. 3B

A series of articl es appeared in Nature magzine in 1882 and 1883 discussing some
of the risks involved with primitive methods
of electrical installation. The general practice at that time was to lay naked wires on
the wall or floor, to fasten them with nails
or staples, and to hope that nothing would
happen to short-circuit the lines. 39 Rules
set up to improve workmanship are chi lIingly
revealing of what was being done: " ... the
employment of gas or water pipes as conductors for the purpose of completing the
circuit should not in any case be allowed...
All wires used for indoor purposes should
be efficiently insulated, either by being
covered throughout with some insulating
material, or, if bare, by resting on insulated
supports." 40

damage the interior decoration of the theatres with smoke and soot; and, most important of all, in theatres where electrical
installations were made by competent technicians, the hazard of fire was substantially
reduced.
The development of incandescent electric
light in the late 1870's came at a time
when fire losses in theatres were at their
worst. The great villain in these holocausts
had been gas lighting. One needs only to
glance at a page of theatre fire statistics to
be convinced that it was gas flame used
everywhere in the theatre which was the
cause of an overwhelming share of theatre
conflagrations. Although there may have
Very early European gas table. Main key is
at bottom, with about 18 ways leading away
above and below via rubber tubing. Minute
inscription along bottom may read "Infinite
preset capability. "

Insurance companies were quick to recognize the existence of a new kind of fire
risk. The National Board of Fire Underwriters found fire insurance as a whole becoming unprofitable in 1894. They blamed
unsafe wiring, and began work on a plan to
compel proper safeguards.

In spite of these objections, however, electricity was considerably more attractive than
gas as a means for illuminating theatres.
Audi ences no longer suffered from bad air
or from excessive heat in theatres lighted
with electricity; the electric light did not

000 THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY MAY, 1969

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - May 1969