SUCCESSFUL ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 226, 29 October 1887, Page 6

SUCCESSFUL ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

A fortnight's experience- has shown that the electric lighting of the- Vienna Opera is a complete success, and, as an- evidence of Imperial approbation, Baron Becenzy, director of the Imperial Court thenires, haareceived the Grand Cross of fclie Francis Joseph Order. But the "Times." correspondent says the credit of the whole under' taking and the thanks of the Viennesetheatre - going publics properly belong to the British Imperial Continental Ga& Association, and to its -energetic inspector general, Mr Herbert Y. Linden, who had", to combat innumerabi6 difficulties raised by municipal ill-will, to tho- association's engineer, Mr D. Monnaei-, and to. the Englishcontractor, Mr 11. E Cf omptons who manufactured the whole of the machinery. The success which has beeni attained in Vienna has a somewhat important bearing on the ligliting of large public buildings in towns, as" Mr Monnier has solved, the problems of supplying a perfectly steady and regular light to a theatre of &uch< huge dimensions as the Grand Opawx, one of the scenjc requirements of which, is tha-ii lights eqvsiHo those ordinarily burning mi 60 or 80 private houses may be snddonly put out or turned on without affecting the remaining lamps even in the smallest dvjgree. Farther, the generating machinery, which casually would require- to be of GOtf-horse power, and which, it wmild therefore be impossible to place* my or even ijear, the building to be ISghted, lias in this ca--e been established a mile away — a feat which nobody had previously attemptecT, or even conpidered possible. The diflicwTties indicated have made th© construction of the> machinery a& oxceptiwially difficult work,, and the credibfor this part of the undertakingbelongs to M"Ci'omp4on. The chief points which strike* the spectator are the fixity and brilliancy of the lights in the auditorium, foyer and loggia, and the boaufcy and steadiness of the scientific effects. , The changes in the intensity and steadiness of the lights can be roade so slowly that in the garden scene of "-Fausts" the gradual darkening of the stag* extended over a period of 20 minutesy so as to be imperceptible to the audience — which is a great contrast to the jerky effects obtainable with gas, or even previously with electricity. • >