Iluminations and the Electric City
BY Rucha Desai

Electricity transforms landscape. It allows people to see the world in a way not possible in darkness. On September 25, 1909, an entire fleet of international warships in the Hudson River was illuminated.^[i] This display of lights and naval power was so impressive that it was reenacted upon the people’s request. This show was part of a larger celebration, the tercentennial of Henry Hudson’s sailing up the Hudson River, and the centennial commemoration of Robert Fulton’s sailing his steamboat up the same river. Electricity played a major role in the celebration, as ships and memorials were illuminated over the course of the two-week celebration. The New York Times referred to these illuminations as “electric wonders,”^[ii] and they succeeded in commanding the attention and appreciation of New Yorkers.

Illumination was so critical to the celebration that the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission organized a committee devoted purely to its preparations and enforcement. To enact its plans, the Commission was in contract with various private electric companies throughout New York, including the New York Edison Company and the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn, which later became part of Consolidated Edison, Inc. The Committee on Illuminations planned to illuminate City Hall and the Borough Halls, as well as the outer bridges and tunnels. Preparations for these projects were extensive. Each building or structure to be illuminated was photographed, and then, after the illuminations were sketched in, the drafts would be sent to the Committee on Decorations for aesthetic approval, and the State Department of Water, Gas, and Electricity to secure permits. ^[iii]

The Commission allocated $83,000 from its budget of $934, 447 for a total of 107,152 illuminations, including various types of lights and fireworks, installed for the celebration^[iv]; in addition to the town halls and bridges, these lights also illuminated the Statue of Liberty, Grant’s Tomb, Soldier and Sailors’ Monument, the Washington Arch, and some museums, like the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. A diversity of light was used to electrify the city. For the Celebration alone, 500,000 incandescent light bulbs were installed, in addition to the other 500,000 incandescent lights already in use around the state. The Times noted that “the power consumed by these incandescent light bulbs alone would have been sufficient to have driven the Mauretania twice across the Atlantic Ocean at her highest speed.”^[v] 3000 Flare arcs and 7000 arc lights^[1] were used, as well, in addition to searchlights, which lit Grant’s Tomb and the Statue of Liberty. Washington Arch and its surrounding streets were festooned with lights.

The use of modern developments in electric power allowed for different lighting effects. Twice a night, at 155th Street and Riverside Drive, an apparatus called the Ryan Scintillator was used in creating a light show. The machine involved the diffraction of different colored searchlights through steam; this was manipulated to show many different shapes, like a peacock’s tail or a sunrise^[vi].  The illumination projects at Riverside Park cost the Commission $20,000.^[vii] The illumination of the naval fleet on September 25 was followed by a display of fireworks in the evening that reflected off the Hudson River. These fireworks were shot over the naval fleet from the Jersey Shore, so that they could be seen from Riverside Park. The Committee commissioned one company to regulate the fireworks; this would not only ensure a uniform display across the State but also, because the company could set off the fireworks in succession, invoke historic memory of the signal fires that Hudson used to navigate along the coast.
There lies an inconsistency in the Committee’s agenda, as it attempted to impose a correlation between the past and present through its pyrotechnic program, yet it proceeded to illuminate the entire city with the relatively modern development of electricity. As electricity was a development of the nineteenth century, its role in the celebration was anachronistic; it was neither didactic nor necessary in presenting historic stories. Rather, illuminations functioned as a commemoration of the present and set expectations for future progress. Professor of American Studies David E. Nye claimed that “electricity was called upon to furnish a fitting climax to what has gone before,” as it was, during the time of the Celebration, “the electric age.”^[viii] Furthermore, the illuminations appealed to the masses of people who the Commission intended to target. Besides New Yorkers, more than one million people from out of the state came to enjoy the Celebration^[ix]. The illumination of the naval fleet and the proceeding fireworks could be seen across the River, from the shorelines of New Jersey. Electricity developed and changed constantly since the use of amber rods in ancient Mediterranean cultures to the study of static electricity to modern engineering, and was still a recent and enchanting experience during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. 

The introduction of electricity into society proved to be a convenience and an irritation, a gift and an intrusion. The introduction of the telephone, for example, was a convenience to those who could afford it, but still elicited complaints about the telephone wires crowding the sky. There was even more concern in the winter, when ice froze onto wires and created a safety hazard. The interference of the wires upon New York City was described as suffocating, as “you look upon a perfect maze of telephone and telegraph wires crossing and recrossing each other from the tops of houses. The sky, indeed, is blackened with them, and it is as though you were looking through the meshes of a net.”^[x]

Of humans’ development of electric light, the first record is found in the work of Otto von Guericke, mayor of the German town of Magdeburg, in 1650; he used a rotating sulfur ball as a conductor and amber, and showed an electric transmission of energy.^[xi] Further innovations of this generator led to more efficient production. In the early eighteenth century, Francis Hawskbee substituted glass for the sulfur globe and added a crank and wheel; the glow of light was so powerful that it led members of the English Royal Society, of which he was a member, “to become agitated with discussions of new electric light.”^[xii] Electric light developed throughout the eighteenth century, across different countries; all electric light creation was contingent upon the rubbing of rods or revolving globes. However, generation of light changed once again in 1745, with the invention of the Leyden jar^[2], which used water, glass, and a nail to essentially “store” electricity inside the container. This discovery accrued much public interest and awe. In 1795, it was written:

The United States also contributed to the constantly evolving production of electric light. Benjamin Franklin contributed the embryo lightening rod, which discharged electricity without emitting sparks, a phenomenon known as silent discharge. He experimented with series and parallel connections, essential to the way in which electric light functions today. Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Americans joined the rest of the world in developing new and improved ways of producing light electrically.

Despite maintenance and visual problems, electric innovations vastly improved communication and transportation in the United States. Increased scientific interest led to innovations, like the telegraph, and growth in research and development sectors. In fact, in 1869, New York City granted a charter to seventeen wealthy investors, of whom J. Pierpont Morgan was one, to found the American Museum of Natural History.^[xiv] More than an exhibition of only animals and artifacts, the Museum also sponsored research and furthered interest in the developmental and innovative fields.

The uses and importance of light predates that of the telephone; before the innovation of the currently used incandescent light bulb, people always found ways to light their homes and workspaces. As the evolution of light progressed, it was increasingly used for recreation rather than only utility. In the 1880s, most of New York City was lit with gaslights, which proved to be more aesthetically pleasing than actually efficient. In December of 1879 the first electric arc light was installed on Broadway from Fourteenth to Twenty-sixth Street.^[xv] An innovation by Charles Francis Brush, this development was more reliable than preceding arc lights because it maintained the necessary distance between the electrodes. These arc lights were later used in the Celebration.Seven months later, he erected a 6,000-candlepower lamp on top of a 160-foot pole in Union Square and one in Madison Square Garden.

Thomas Alva Edison sought to further improve the quality of light. In 1879, the same year Brush raised his arc lights on Broadway, Edison discovered carbonized cotton filaments and produced a bulb with a life of forty hours.^[xvi] He exhibited his innovation to New York City aldermen in January of 1880, and though impressed, the city did not want to spend any extra money on electricity when the Brush Electric Illumination Company of New York was sufficient. Edison then appealed to private investors, and J. Piermont Morgan took interest in the idea that Edison’s lights could light private homes, not just the entire city.

Initially this privatization of lighting proved to be a great hindrance. Unaccustomed to its temporary life and complexity,
the family [would] often forget to watch the clock, and while visitors were still in the house, or possibly a game of cards was going on, the lights would die down and go out… If they wanted to give a party, a special arrangement had to be made to keep the engineer on duty after hours. The neighbors complained of the noise of the dynamo…its vibrations made…[houses] shake.^[xvii]

Though it was evidence of luxury, electricity in its early stages proved to be a source of difficulty in its maintenance and design. As its efficiency and aesthetic qualities increased, however, there grew a dependency upon electricity to light private homes and office spaces.
Through private investment, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company continued to light the entire city. Edison concentrated on appealing to the wealthy, in order to generate more funds, and thus invested in the lighting of offices in the financial district. He worked to light more homes and expanded his company, adding value to its stocks.

On Monday, September 4, 1882, Edison premiered his lighting throughout the city. A great master switch at Edison’s first central electric station at Pearl Street^[xviii] turned on to light his office and home projects. It was not an immediate success; they held this lighting in the afternoon, when it competed with sunlight. In the evening, however, the electrical effects were profound. As if by magic, the brightness of the day was transposed into the night. Regarding the effects on the city of the more efficient and accessible light, the New York Times raved:
The light was more brilliant than gas and a hundred times steadier. To turn on the light nothing is required but to turn on the thumbscrew…as soon as it is dark enough to need artificial light, you turn on the thumbscrew and the light is there, with no nauseous smell, no flicker and no glare.^[xix]

Though New Yorkers generally agreed upon the superiority of Edison’s innovation to both gas and arc lights, the city was slow to adapt it, until their use in the Celebration in 1909. Electricity was still a relatively new utility, and its function as aesthetic appeal was not widespread. Thus, the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission’s choice to utilize lights was based on their appeal and their reflection on contemporary achievements, juxtaposed to achievements of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.