SPORTS BY NIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 20

SPORTS BY NIGHT

ELECTRICAL ILLUMINATION.

Those interested in the promotion of outdoor recreation at night were attracted a short time ago by the story of a complete game of baseball played under electric lights by two teams at West Lynn, Massachusetts. By means of more than 100 floodlights the players had no difficulty Whatever in seeing the ball, except possibly when , a high fly ■ was knocked into the outfield. / This innovation at once v suggests interesting possibilities. For one thing, it adds one more to the rather impressive list of outdoor amusements and sports which can now bo .carried o.n after nightfall. It also makes it apparent that the time may be fairly close when great numbers of people will-congregate- for evening amusements in the open air throughout . the warm period of tlie year. At the present time tennis is probably the outdoor game most frequently played at night. Several years of experimentation have produced a more or less standard installation, which uses from 4000 to 6000 watts of, power, according to whether it is a side-lighting or overhead ' lighting system. The United States National Lawn Tennis Association has endorsed night' tennis When the installation is such that playing conditions closely approximating those of daylight are'produced. So practical has night tennis become that many business men who are unable to take advantage of daylight hours have been known to avail themselves oHt in places where lighted tennis courts exist. Others who could not stand the heat of the day have found it beneficial, and its popularity, is usually greatest when the days begin to grow shorter. Floodlights may also be used for the night playing of clock and court golf/ for horse show arenas, drill'fields, race tracks, skating ponds, bathing beaches, and trap shooting ranges. A somewhat parallel use of floodlightingjfor amusement at night is to be found in the illumination' of the Lewisohn Stadium in New York City for "summer evening concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Thirty thousand persons each .nigh^ enjoyed these concerts during the season just closed, and they had no difficulty in seeing the musicians, While the latter could read their music without the slightest eye strain. „ ■ . . The installation ■ consisted of twelve 500-watt lamps, allowing about three watts per square foot of platform area.: A skilful placing of reflectors aided the results obtained. '' ' <