394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



bination with the judicious arrangements of the glass ornaments pro- 

 duce a very brilliant effect" (Journal, ser. 3, vol. 6, p. 402). 



The Cornelius firm of Philadelphia, the largest manufacturer of 

 lighting devices in America at the time, exhibited two gas chandeliers 

 at the London International Exhibition of 1851. The Art Journal's 

 catalogue of the display comments as follows: "They stood about 

 fifteen feet and a half high, by six feet wide, having fifteen burners 

 with plain glass globes, and are rich brass lacquered. The design is 

 very rich in ornament, and possesses some novelty in the succession of 

 curves ingeniously and tastefully united: the gas keys represent 

 bunches of fruit, thus combining beauty with utility" (1851, p. 212). 

 Such dubious marriages between beauty and utility were to become 

 increasingly frequent in American lighting devices as the century 

 wore on. 



Gas street lights were simple inverted truncated pyramids of glass 

 and tin, mounted on posts and enclosing gas jets. Charles Dickens 

 remarked upon the lights of Broadway in 1842 (p. 103) : "As the eye 

 travels down the long thoroughfare, dotted with bright jets of gas, it 

 is reminded of Oxford Street or Piccadilly. Here and there a flight 

 of broad stone cellar-steps appears, a painted lamp directs you to the 

 Bowling Saloon, or Ten-Pin Alley ... At other downward flights 

 of steps, are other lamps, marking the whereabouts of oyster-cellars." 



Public illuminations of a celebrative nature were frequent urban 

 occurrences in the exuberant years we are considering, and the possi- 

 bilities of gas light were exploited to the utmost on those occasions. 

 Gas pipes were sometimes bent to odd shapes, and when perforated 

 with holes for jets, were mounted on buildings and lighted with im- 

 pressive effects. 



At the Railroad Jubilee held in Boston in 1851 to commemorate the 

 completion of the railroad between Boston and Montreal, an illumi- 

 nation "emblematic, not only of present joy, but of bright hope for 

 the future . . . irradiated the scene," according to the official account. 

 "The Tremont House," it was narrated, "is especially worthy of notice 

 for the extent and splendor of its illumination. The columns of the 

 portico were like pillars of flame. Two thousand lights were placed 

 in the windows, besides which there were two dazzling rosettes of 

 gas in front. The exhibition called forth the warmest encomiums 

 of thousands." The Boston Gas Light Co. naturally made the most 

 of its product, and we find that "in front of the office of this Com- 

 pany was seen the word 'Union,' in 'letters of living light,' supported 

 by four vines, above all which blazed a single star of dazzling bril- 

 liancy" (Railroad Jubilee, 1852, p. 188 ff.). 



Such public demonstrations were all the more wondrous because 

 they were unfamiliar. In the ordinary household a meager amount 



