Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/598

 Flood-Lighting Niagara Falls

���A battery of incandescent lamps which play upon Niagara's waters. With these lamps Niagara is to be brought out of the night and bathed in electric radiance

��ILLUMINATING Niagara Falls at iiit;ht by artificial sunlight is the aniliitious scheme now occupying the attention of proininent engineers and the officials of Niagara h'alls, New York, who have authorized an expenditure of ten thousand dollars for the project.

For several nights a battery of twenty- five flood-lights was turned on the American Falls and the rapids of the Niagara River, to the great delight of thousands. Indeed, the effect was so successful as to exceed the expectations of the pronKjters. It is now planned to double the number of lamps in service and from time to time to enlarge the battery as new lighting effects arc desired.

In illuminating the waterf.ill al iii;.^lil the light is |)rojected from an ingenious patented relleclor, wiiich siiri'ads bi-ams of pure, yellow light which \ery cioseU' rcseml)lcs Miniighl upon the curtain of falling water and mist. An ailislic realistic effect is produced, which would be unattainable l)y any other means. With this system of llood-ligliling.

��receiving its power from the Falls them- selves, there is no dark center or wing- shadow in the light beam. The Falls are smoothly and softh" lighted. On the other hand, the beam is powerful enough to penetrate the densest parts of the rolling mist.

Strange as it may seem, the Falls are thus illuminated not by electric arcs, but by incandescent lamps. This achievement was made jiossible by the gas-tilled lamp, remarkable for its re- newing i^roperties. It is a one thou- sand-watt one hundred and ten-volt tungsten lamp, which is filled with an inert gas, such as nitrogen or argon. Such lamps arc now competing success- fully with arcs in street -lighting. The rcllectors used al the l-.iUs are as true parabolas as it is possible to make thom c<)mmerciall>-, and they gi\ e a |)o\viTfully roiui'iilraled lu'am of light rated at one hundred and hft>' thousand candlepower in the center of the beam, when used as a llood-lamp, and as high as five Inmdred thousand camlli'powi'r when they are (•mploy(>(l as a .searchlight.

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