History of Stained Glass

Introduction

There are many good reasons for the student to study the history of stained glass; first, to truly excel, the student should be aware of the romance of the medium. Henry Willet would talk extensively of the "lust and the lure and the love of stained glass." While this cliché is admittedly melodramatic, it nevertheless gives an accurate feel for the attitude of someone who was passionate about the craft. Second, an appreciation of the history of stained glass will foster a dispassionate, critical approach in the student when appraising stained glass. The student of stained glass is urged to approach the medium with an informed, non-prejudiced understanding of the various styles to be encountered.
Informed observation will free the student's imagination for design, not to copy but rather to inspire. There are many excellent resources available for the study of stained glass and the student is urged to acquire a library of reference books that illustrate and describe specific installations in detail. However, there is no substitute for actually viewing stained glass in situ; that is, in its architectural surroundings.
A comprehensive bibliography follows this chapter. Because this volume is intended as a reference of techniques for the stained glass artist and not as a history of the craft, this chapter should serve only as a starting point for the student who wishes to develop a deeper appreciation of the history of craft.
It should also be noted that there are many periods that are imperfectly documented. For instance, 60 stained glass businesses were listed in Philadelphia's city directories before 1900. None of those studios exist today, and little is known about them.

The Obscure Beginnings of Stained Glass

Many histories of stained glass begin with Pliny's tale of the accidental discovery of glass by Phoenician sailors. The legend recounts shipwrecked sailors who set their cooking pots on blocks of natron (soda) from their cargo then built a fire under it on the beach. In the morning, the fire's heat had melted the sand and soda mixture. The resultant mass had cooled and hardened into glass. Today, though, it is thought that Pliny -- though energetic in collecting material -- was not very scientifically reliable. It is more likely that Egyptian or Mesopotamian potters accidentally discovered glass when firing their vessels. The earliest known manmade glass is in the form of Egyptian beads from between 2750 and 2625 BC. Artisans made these beads by winding a thin string of molten glass around a removable clay core. This glass is opaque and very precious.
Jean Lafond's gripping story tells how, in the desert west of Palmyra in 1937, David Schlumberger, director of excavations, showed Lafond a cache of 115 colored glass fragments that Lafond described as "Greenish white, bluish white, moss green, two tobacco yellows (one more gold than the other), burnt sienna, smokey, three purples (one near wine, one more brown), a garnet of great beauty and two violet purples. A varied thickness adds to their nuances." The greens had been blown in a roundel which he could surmise because of the presence of part of the outer rim. Several pieces showed a right angle and traces of a grozer on the edge. Schlumberger explained that these glasses had decorated claires-voies (literally "clear ways") of stucco designed in elegant interlaced arabesques (Jean Lafond, Le Vitrail, P.20).
In the first century AD, the Romans glazed glass into windows. They cast glass slabs and employed blowing techniques to spin discs and made cylinder glass. The glass was irregular and not very transparent.
One of the oldest known examples of multiple pieces of colored glass used in a window were unearthed at St. Paul's Monastery in Jarrow, England, founded in 686 AD.
The oldest complete European windows found in situ are thought to be five relatively sophisticated figures in Augsburg Cathedral. (These five windows are no longer in their original setting. They have recently been moved into a museum and replaced with copies.) These five windows show fired glass painting which utilizes line and tonal shading and they are made of bright, varied colors of glass. The authors of Stained Glass say, "they are the work of skilled, experienced stained glass artists. Where are the children who are father to these men? Where are the earlier windows?" (Lawrence Lee, Seddon and Stephens. Stained Glass. P. 67)
Authorities believe that Arabian glass windows appeared in the second half of the thirteenth century. Lewis F. Day suggests that Byzantine, Moorish or Arabian glass could have appeared by the tenth century AD. Pieces of glass were either inserted into intricate pierced marble or stone, or glazed in plaster before the plaster had set hard. Ribs of iron were often used to strengthen the plaster.
Arabian filigree windows moved into Europe when the Moors entered Spain. As the fashion moved farther north into areas of more inclement weather, covering became more necessary. This covering usually came in the form of slices of alabaster. In Europe, plates of pierced lead replaced the plaster grillwork. The first of these had no glass in the decorative openings, but later small pieces of glass were attached using strings of lead.
Arabian glass windows' development was slowed because Islam allows no subject other than geometric or vegetal ornament. Traces of cold paint on glass have been found in the mid-east indicating that windows probably stood up better than those windows in damper climates.
In 1930 at Saint Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, the archaeologist Cecchelli dug up three glass fragments showing Christ with a cruciform nimbus standing between an alpha and omega painted with grisaille. (The word grisaille applies equally to vitrifiable glass paint, as well as a style of lightly toned window that has been painted and stained in a decorative pattern.) It is assumed these fragments date from approximately 540 AD, the time of the construction of the building. 
In 1878 at a dig in a cemetery abandoned about 1000 AD at Sery les Mezieres, Aisne, France, Jules Pilloy found about 30 pieces of glass which had suffered from an apparent fire, a lead strip with two channels and a small slab of bone among some charred wood. The bone (which might have been a holy relic) pre-dated Charlemagne. Edmond Socard arranged the glass into a small, simple window. A cross patee, from which hung an alpha and omega, were painted and fired on it. This symbol was very popular from the sixth to ninth centuries. Unfortunately, this treasure was destroyed in 1918 during World War I.
Fragments of a very early head of Christ were excavated in 1932 at Lorsch Abbey in Germany. This is similar to the better known and more complete head of Christ from the Abbey Church of Saint Peter, Wissembourg, Alsace (c.1060). The latter has more advanced glass painting with both trace line and wash. Because of their size and their aspect -- that is, with the heads forward like the icon called the Panto crater, as well as the lack of any fragments showing bodies -- Catherine Brisac thinks these heads were displayed as icons in the middle of windows in which they would have been the only painted elements.
Christian iconography developed from pagan illustrations found in the catacombs. The beardless pagan god of the underworld, Orphaeus, was transformed into a youthful Christ the Good Shepherd. From the fourth century forward, He had a beard. The pagan phoenix and peacock were used for resurrection symbols.
Wall paintings gave way to mosaics of ceramic tiles, stones and glass bits. Moving from the catacombs, the earliest Christians worshiped in their homes; then, when they became politically secure enough, the Christians built churches. The first churches housed the relics of saints. Architecturally, they were based on the basilica, the Roman law court. The cruciform floor plan developed from the Byzantine square floor plan with a dome added.
European kings and bishops sent to Jerusalem and the east for holy relics. Their emissaries brought back small works of art such as cloisonne , damascene and carved ivory set with jewels and precious glass. Oriental and African craftsmen and glassmakers found their way to Europe as early as the third century. We can no longer agree with Hugh Arnold when he writes, "The making of stained glass windows is one of the arts that belong wholly to the Christian Era. Its traditions do not extend back beyond the great times of Gothic architecture." (Hugh Arnold, Stained Glass of the Middle Ages in England and France. p.3) We can no longer say that stained glass is a purely Christian art form, either at its beginning or in its current usage.

Romanesque Stained Glass

Romanesque architecture is more uniform than the stained glass that adorns it. The walls are thick and the window openings small with rounded tops. Because the glass was set in small openings, it had to let in considerable light. Today Romanesque windows seem darker because of corrosion.
Some figures in Romanesque stained glass stand or sit staring straight ahead. Some are involved in action as witnessed by their billowing garments. Some windows are made up of a series of events enclosed in medallions. The earlier windows of this style are more simple, primitive and rare. They depict well-known saints or stories from the Bible. Reverence for the Virgin Mary is prevalent at this time and she is often depicted as a queen. The windows use stylized vegetal ornament and decorative beading around the scenes and figures. The predominant colors are red and blue. This style of stained glass seems to have developed from cloisonne  enamels and miniature paintings.
Few Romanesque windows remain. Those that do remain are frequently found as illustrations in books; thus, they often seem familiar. Some examples of the Romanesque style are the Augsburg figures mentioned previously, c. 1120; parts of an Ascension scene from Le Mans Cathedral, c. 1140; the Great Crucifixion from Poitiers Cathedral, c. 1165-70; the facade windows and La Belle Verriere from Chartres Cathedral, c. 1150; and, at the end of the era, the great figures in the choir clerestories of Canterbury Cathedral, c. 1200.

Gothic Stained Glass

The medieval Church was the most important patron of the arts. Having made that statement, the name of the single person who most personifies this concept must immediately follow: Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, the royal abbey located just outside Paris. Suger was a fellow student and friend to King Louis VI, minister of Louis VII, and regent during the second crusade. His writings show him to have been a shrewd businessman, a politician with a genius for detail, and a devoted servant to his king. Suger reformed and rebuilt the abbey and augmented its wealth. As its treasures increased, many pilgrims told stories of it and its influence spread. Suger was guided by a philosophy including the mysticism of light; this philosophy compelled him to enlarge the windows and beautify them with colored glass.
Window subject treatment grew during the Gothic period, expanding from simple figures to a complex iconography fully understood by only a few experts today. This iconography made use of symbolism based on bestiaries which can be called "unnatural history" and on complicated typology (Old Testament stories that symbolize New Testament events). Today, scholars study these windows to learn about the daily life of the time. Guilds of workmen donated windows that included likenesses of themselves engaged in their businesses. The appearance of heraldry in the windows demonstrates the increasing importance of secular families.
This time saw the formation of new religious orders that needed new buildings. Many cathedrals and churches were built. The relationship between Saint Denis and Chartres is well established through a similarity of style and iconography. Stained glass historians today re-trace the work of traveling studios. Suger wrote, "Moreover we caused to be painted by the exquisite hands of many masters from different regions, a splendid variety of new windows both below and above: from that first one which begins with the Tree of Jesse in the chevet of the church to that which is installed above the principal door of the church's entrance." The latter was a petalled rose window, the first of its kind. A Jesse Tree window was soon after installed in Chartres.
As the studios traveled from job site to job site, they took sketches and models along with their tools. The windows in Laon Cathedral show the influence of the Ingebourg Psalter.
Le Mans Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Beauvais and some Canterbury stained glass is stylistically similar to the Paris-Chartres school. Although the cathedral is a contemporary of Chartres, the windows of Bourges are more archaic. Although Chartres' stained glass depends chiefly upon reds and blues, in Bourges, pure whites, yellows and greens are prominent.
The Gothic style was also developing outside France. The stained glass in the cathedral of Lausanne, Switzerland shows a marked French influence. Stained glass craftsmen from France are known to have worked at Canterbury in England, as did the French architect, William of Sens. French influence can be seen in Spanish stained glass of this time, especially in Aragon, Toledo and Castille. The windows in Leon Cathedral are significant although greatly restored.
In Germany, the Romanesque style endured longer than in other areas. Notable windows are in Cologne and Strasbourg Cathedrals and the Franciscan Monastery of Konigsfelden.
The international Gothic style came late to Vienna and Prague. The earliest remaining glass in Italy, in Assisi, is the work of German glaziers. The oculus in the Cathedral of Siena is called the "first modern window" because the subjects are treated as separate scenes. The window is a circle with a metal grid structure, rather than stone mullions, dividing it into petals. By the end of the medieval period, (the second quarter of the fourteenth century), perspective and volume were becoming evident. Subject was more pictorial and not subservient to the architecture

Renaissance Stained Glass

Renaissance stained glass is very different from that of the previous period. The themes are still principally biblical. Because subjects in renaissance stained glass are shown dressed in period clothing, a knowledge of the history of costume helps date windows. Allegorical themes are even more elaborate than medieval iconography. Figures represent abstract ideas. There are secular scenes in church windows.
Stained glass was used in secular buildings during the renaissance period. Historic scenes or heraldry were placed in town halls and small panels (usually silver stain and paint on white glass) were incorporated into clear glass windows in homes. The labors of the seasons are a favorite theme during this period. In large church windows, the scenes extended over the whole, ignoring the mullions. Buildings portrayed in the windows are solid, in classical style, shown with correct perspective. Some action takes place far back from the picture plane with vistas in the distance. Faces have individuality and show emotion.
The way stained glass craftsmen worked also changed. Artists drew cartoons on paper and were able to carry those cartoons to different clients. Sample books of patterns were also transported. Workshops stayed in one place through several generations, often attached to a cathedral that constituted their major employer. Finished windows were shipped to secondary customers at a distance. Studios joined together in corporations or guilds.
Silver stain, flashed glass (abraded rather than acid etched,) and colored enamels were widely used. The diamond cutter was used, making possible larger, more complicated pieces of glass. Leads became thinner and less important to the design. In the fifteenth century, the city of Bruges, Belgium had 80 stained glass operations. The glass painting style of this area shows the influence of woodcuts.
Although Gothic stained glass came late to Italy, the Renaissance style flourished early. It was championed by well-known artists such as Filippino Lippi, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Simone Martini, Taddeo Gaddi, Pietro Perugino, Donatello, Paolo Ucello, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pacino di Buonaguida, Andrea da Firenze, Giotto, Giovanni Cimabue, Cortona Arezzo and the Gesuati brothers.
Flemish stained glass designs in the Renaissance are akin to the oil paintings of the Van Eycks; that is, they often show energetic forms and contrasting colors. A characteristic crisp fold in garments is evident in this period. Lierre makes use of much white glass in The Coronation of the Virgin in Saint Gommaire's Church. The drapery used on all of the figures is white, set against colored backgrounds.
Large windows by Bernard van Orley in the Brussels Cathedral show the Coronation of Charles V. Dirck. Wouter Crabeth did windows in Gouda and then went to England to work. Henry VII of England brought Dirck Vellert from Antwerp and Barnard Flower and Galyon Hone from Holland to work on the windows in Kings College, Cambridge. The English glaziers who had a long tradition did not welcome them, but the Flemish had the King's patronage, so the native craftsmen could only protest without redress. The cities of York and Norwich were very prosperous and have many parish churches with fine traditions of Renaissance stained glass. They were famous for their glaziers' workshops.
Spain had no early tradition of stained glass because Moorish occupation limited Christian church building. The Renaissance is its golden age. Italian, Flemish and French glaziers established the craft after the Moors left. Two brothers, Arnao de Vergara and Arnao de Flandres who worked on the Seville Cathedral, are particularly noteworthy.

The Low Ebb

Experts agree that stained glass reached a low ebb sometime between the late medieval age and the nineteenth century. Why did stained glass fall from favor? The reasons were religious, political and aesthetic. The Church had been the principal patron of the arts. The new Protestants were hostile to elaborate art and decoration. Even in the Roman Catholic countries, the Counter-Reformation called for simpler religious buildings. During the Thirty Years War, Cardinal Richelieu ordered all castles and palaces in Lorraine razed. Their destruction saw an end to the glass workshops that centered in the area.
By 1640 colored glass was very scarce. This necessitated painting on white glass with enamels. The little decorative glass that was produced was mostly small heraldic panels for city halls and private homes. Stained glass that had been so popular just a few years before was no longer in demand. The glass craftsmen were in great misery, pushing their barrows from place to place in search of work.
The English Parliament ordered all images of the Virgin Mary and the Trinity removed from churches. The Puritan principles of the Commonwealth inspired English adherents to smash stained glass windows with vigor. (Some fragments of early glass remain in traceries, as they were too high to easily reach.) The cost of replacing stained glass with clear glass finally stopped the destruction. Sometimes shattered pieces, left behind by the vandals, were reassembled into windows with no regard for subject. In Brittany, a congregation covered a window with dung and mud and whitewashed over to avoid spending money to replace it.
In England, church buildings remained churches. This was not always the case in France, where, as a result of the French Revolution, they were often turned to secular uses. For example, Strasbourg Cathedral became a Temple of Reason. Some became museums, but many became stables, arsenals or storerooms.
Several factors turned fashion toward the classic style. Even before the French Revolution, the baroque style was associated with vapid royalty. Ancient Rome became a symbol for a republican, rather than a monarchical government. Europeans became excited by antiquities.
During this period, some windows were made in Oxford. Abraham and Bernard van Linge painted in enamels. William Peckett of York provided figures in enamels for the south transept of the York cathedral.
Sir Joshua Reynold's design in New College, Oxford was executed by an Irish craftsman, Thomas Jervais. The American artist, Benjamin West, provided cartoons for Salisbury Cathedral. An anonymous writer in The Ornamental Glass Bulletin, September 1923, praises Francis Egington's painted glass. The clerestory windows of Saint George's Windsor were then being reinstalled in new frames, and at that time, Egington's fired enamel colors stood firm.
Jean-Adolph Dannecker, a gingerbread baker in Strasbourg, wrote to the Superintendent of the King's Buildings, Charles Nicholas Cochin in 1764, petitioning him to reestablish the stained glass craft. Cochin replied, "In truth use is no longer made of it because in neither apartments nor even churches do people want anything that might diminish the light. Thus in the event of it being proved that it (the art) had been lost and that it had been rediscovered, people would not know what use to make of it." This is perhaps the origin of the term "Lost Art."

The Early Beginnings of Stained Glass in America

Glass making was the first industry set up in America in Jamestown, settled in 1607. The English were running out of wood to fuel their furnaces. The endless forests and sand in the New World dictated the choice. To reassure his English investors, Captain John Smith wrote that the glass-making venture was a success, but the operation was very short lived. Bottles and window glass were the primary glass products of this venture.
In 1637 or 1638, Evert Duyckingh came from Borken, a Dutch-German border town, to New Amsterdam (now New York). He was a painter, glazier and "burner of glass". The sort of small house windows he made can be seen in Dutch paintings: a small round, square or oval panel set in a background of clear glass quarries. The subjects, often a family coat of arms, were applied with enamels and silver stain. Several examples of this type of glass are preserved at the New York Historical Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; while they are contemporary with Duyckingh's work, it is not certain that they are actually his work.
In 1648, Duyckingh took on Cornelius Jansen as an apprentice. In 1656 he requested payment for glass he put in a church, 2 1/2 beavers for each. Duyckingh also made a window for the City Hall showing the coat of arms of New Amsterdam. He wrote complaining he had not been paid.
Labadist missionaries arrived on a ship in 1679 on which Evert Duyckingh Jr. was mate. Their new church window was made by Evert Sr. and another son, Gerrit. In 1674, the Duyckingh operation passed on to Jacob Melyer.
In 1654, Jan Smeedes set up glass works in lower Manhattan to make roundels. Blowing spun roundels may be seen in old prints such as those in Diderot's Encyclopedia. At first, the outer part of the roundel was in greater demand for glazing windows. The center with the punty mark was cheaper. Later windows of multiple "bullseyes" glazed in quarry patterns were quite popular.
Churches in early America were simple meeting houses of wood or brick and white woodwork. Stained glass was out of fashion or economically impractical. Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia, when it opened, had no glass in the windows, only shutters. Small shutters inside the larger outside ones were used in cold weather.
In the nineteenth century, William Gibson began the earliest known glass business in America around 1834 in New York City. This venture did not last, but he tried again several decades later and would promote himself as the "father of glass painting" in the United States.
Robert Bolton, elder of one of the most interesting families in American stained glass history, came from England when he inherited property in Savannah, Georgia. The family moved for a time to New York State, then returned to England where William Jay and John were born. After a time, the family returned to New York and built a home in Pelham. William was a talented artist and studied with Samuel F.B. Morse. They made some small stained glass windows for their home and followed them in 1843 with the first-known American-made figural window, the Nativity for Christ Church at Pelham, New York. These were followed in 1844 by the tour de force of the fenestration of Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, (today Saint Ann's and Holy Trinity).
The elder Otto Heinigke wrote of them: "Let me tell you that there is nothing being done today the world over, that can compare with the vigor, the freedom and the fire of these remarkable windows." Otto Weir Heinigke wrote: "I believe that group of windows to be the finest in this country in nobility of conception as an architectural decoration and as a comprehensive exposition of the history of God's people from the Creation to Christ's glorification in the Apocalyptic vision."
After this job, William Bolton returned to England and opened a stained glass studio in Cambridge where he worked restoring the windows of Kings College. Another window by him was recently rediscovered at West Lynne in Norfolk, England. When he went to Cambridge, William attended classes that were not available in America. While a student, he married, but his wife soon fell ill and died. This so upset him that he studied for holy orders and became an ordained clergyman. He married a second time and had several children.
Meanwhile, his brother John continued to make stained glass in America long enough to do windows for the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan. He, too, became a clergyman, and after one or two other charges, went to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While there, he made the decorative aisle windows. The chancel window in that church is by La Farge and is a memorial to members of the Bolton family.
Many years later, a visitor from Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn sought out an aged daughter of William's who was supposed to be on her deathbed. She had never heard of her father's earlier career in stained glass. The story so excited her she arose from her bed and traveled from England to the United States to see the windows.
The year 19844 saw the commencement of a set of figurative altar windows for the architect Richard Upjohn's Trinity Episcopal Church. Upjohn contributed to the design that was probably produced by Thomas F. Hoppin. They were fabricated by Abner Stephenson.
In the 1850s several important studios were established that would survive and promote the industry. Henry Sharp, Henry Belcher, Joseph and Richard Lamb of Lamb Studios and William Gibson (who had reentered the field) founded these studios. Despite these advances, the industry was still delicately balanced; it was growing slowly, which was a reflection of individual dedication and struggle. The quality of materials was limited compared to what it would be only a few decades later; further, the window artistry was largely derivative of foreign trends in the trade and decorative furnishings industry. By the 1870s, the economic prospects for the industry were improving. Scotsman Daniel Cottier and Englishman Charles Booth set up firms in New York and New Jersey respectively to capitalize on the expanded American markets.

The Gothic Revival in the United Kingdom

The English admiration for the medieval period is embodied in literature such Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Goethe's Faust, Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, and as Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The wealthy built castles for themselves modeled on those described in the Gothic novels. As early as the 1740s, Horace Walpole collected medieval stained glass and employed one of the few stained glass craftsmen left in England, William Price, to restore it and install it in his fashionable Gothic mansion, Strawberry Hill. Many windows were sent to England from the continent. A few enthusiasts kept their interest in medieval stained glass and assiduously collected pieces being discarded that would otherwise have been lost. Some of these panels are in museums today, in better shape than if they had remained in situ. In 1802, an exhibition held in London consisted of glass that was saved from the French Revolution.
Since colored glass had gone out of fashion, little was made and the quality was generally poor. When the British studios became interested in restoring antique glass and providing new stained glass for Neo-Gothic churches, there was almost no appropriate glass. The person who is most credited with rectifying this situation was not a stained glass man at all, but a lawyer, Charles Winston. Stained glass was his hobby. He wrote a book containing his faithful drawings of medieval stained glass. His book included a translation of the monk Theophilus' description of the process of creating stained glass. In 1849, he had fragments of beautiful old glass chemically analyzed and encouraged James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars Glassworks, to produce excellent colored glass. William Edward Chance also began experimenting with colored glass at that time, and in 1863, succeeded in producing an excellent red.
Although Winston's book was about medieval stained glass, he also appreciated the pictorial style windows such as were being made in Germany in his own day. He was opposed in this opinion by Pugin and his followers.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, was the architect who, almost single-handedly, established the Gothic style as the only viable ecclesiastical architecture. He started to build his first church in 1837. He then wrote Contrasts in which he stated that the classic style was pagan and unsuitable for the buildings of a Christian nation.
He thought the Gothic style to be both more desirable aesthetically and more moral. Pugin also designed stained glass windows. Various studios fabricated his windows, most often John Hardman of Birmingham. At the time, the revival Oxford Movement (within the Church of England) aimed at restoring high church ideals. This was evidenced by increased elaboration of both worship services and the church buildings in which the liturgy was conducted. Demand for stained glass quickly increased. The Cambridge Camden Society published a magazine, The Ecclesiologist, which circulated Gothic architectural principles.
Well before Pugin's early death in 1852, other architects were taking up Gothic revival styles. Stained glass again contained flat decorative designs and lead lines that outlined and separated colors. Important studios and craftsmen were Thomas Willement, J.H. Miller, Betton and Evans of Shrewsbury, John Hardman, and William Wailes.
Twenty-five English firms showed stained glass at the great Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. It is sometimes difficult to trace the studios that made the windows of this period. Parish records tell the donors more readily than the makers.
Other notable studios begun in this period include Burlington and Grylls, 1868; Clayton and Bell, 1855; Gibbs, founded 1813, stained glass production started 1848; Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 1855; Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, 1855; Shrigley and Hunt, 1875; James Powell and Sons, makers of glass since the 17th century, began production of stained glass 1844; Ward and Nixon, later Ward and Hughes, 1836. William Warrington started a stained glass business in 1833, but went out of business in 1875. The others continued well into the 20th century.
Many of these English studios still in business during World War II lost their archives either as a result of bombing or because they gave them up for pulp to make new paper. English magazines record that some firms had employed over 100 men. They may have done other decorating work in addition to stained glass. Their work is still treasured today. Some of its characteristics are flat treatment even in scenic windows, greenish white flesh, delicate painting, quarried backgrounds with a decorative silver stained motif in each pane, graceful architectural framing (canopy) or borders and liberal use of silver stain.
A change in the philosophical climate was taking place in England and the world. In 1854, F.D. Maurice founded the Workingmen's College in London's East End. John Ruskin taught an evening course in drawing and design, and encouraged others to teach there also. When he was young, Ruskin often visited a friend, Charles Milnes Gaskell, who lived in a medieval priory. This probably awakened his admiration for medieval art and architecture.
Ruskin so loved the priory that he supposed the workmen who created it had been happy. He widely promulgated Pugin's view about the morality of Gothic style. He wrote Fors Clavigera (Fortune the Nail Bearer), A Series of Letters to the Workmen and Laborers of Great Britain. It was never read much by those for whom it was written, but it influenced British socialism to a Christian rather than an atheistic basis like Marx's.
William Morris' philosophy was also socialistic. William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones went to Oxford in 1853 intending to become clergymen, but as the impetus of the Oxford Movement was then diminishing, they took up art. Ruskin and Morris would influence arts and crafts movements world wide
In 1857 William Morris, then a young man of 23, took part in the painting of the Oxford Union frescoes which depict King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Characteristically, he felt he could not portray knights in armor unless he had experienced the feeling of wearing armor; he had a helmet and a suit of mail made to his own design by a surprised Oxford blacksmith. To the delight of his friends he insisted on wearing the suit to a dinner party and succeeded in getting his head stuck in the helmet.
Morris soon realized his talent was not as a fine arts painter. The firm of Morris, Marshall and Faulkner was founded in 1861 because Morris could not find appropriate furnishings for the new home just built for him by Philip Webb. While the firm was a decorating company, stained glass was prominent from the first.
Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown had some previous experience designing for stained glass, but at first, the group knew little about fabricating. Their first designs were produced as a joint effort. Burne-Jones was a master of line and composition. Morris, a less expert draughtsman, was unmatched at selecting color, so they complemented each other's skills. The glaziers put the lead lines in the cartoons. Ultimately, they employed over a dozen craftsmen who also did decorating work. Their wives and sisters were pressed into helping, especially painting tiles and executing embroidery.
In 1857, the original firm dissolved and the company was completely under Morris' control. Burne-Jones and Webb stayed on. As Morris' share of the actual work diminished, Burne-Jones was deluged with work. He accomplished a number of paintings as well as his work for the company. Evidence in their account books derived from payments made to photographers indicates that they began to use photographic enlargements of small sketches and repeated the same designs over and over. Morris died in 1896 and Burne-Jones in 1898.
The company continued under John Henry Dearle, who had worked with Burne-Jones for many years as chief designer. Morris and Burne-Jones were so opposed to copying medieval styles that they would not accept any commissions supplying windows for old churches. Although most of their stained glass was done for churches, they also did secular installations since they provided complete decorating schemes. Favorite secular subjects were illustrations of medieval romances and ladies personifying virtues, the seasons and the arts, especially music.
Ford Madox Brown designed a series of accurate historical portrait figures for Peterhouse, Cambridge University. While Brown and Morris were interested in medieval subjects, their style was uniquely their own, noble figures in classically inspired drapery on Morris' leafy backgrounds or energetic flatly painted illustrations
Many stained glass artists were influenced by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, including Henry Holiday, at first exclusively a designer, he set up his own studio in 1891; Charles Eamer Kempe, who set up a studio in 1869; and Christopher W. Whall, who founded a studio in 1897.
Scotland also occupies a conspicuous role in the Gothic revival. Its style was different from the English. It was centered in Glasgow, which retains a greater proportion of its nineteenth century church and domestic glass than any other city in the British Isles. The People's Palace, a museum, has a large, permanent collection.
Ballantine and Allen founded their firm in 1837. Ballantine learned the trade in England. Francis Wilson Oliphant designed for Wailes and fabricated for Pugin. He published a small volume on stained glass in 1854, earlier than Winston's. Other studios were William Cairney and Sons, 1828; Hugh Boyle and Company, 1850; David Kier and Sons, 1847.
Kier was master glazier to the Glasgow Cathedral when it ordered windows from Munich on Winston's recommendation and caused an uproar. Kier copied the Munich style.
Daniel Cottier was born in Glasgow and apprenticed to Kier in the 1850s. He went to London and enrolled in F.D. Maurice's Workingmen's College where he heard lectures by Ruskin, Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown. He returned to Scotland as a designer for Field and Allan of Leith. He set up his own studio for decorating in 1865.
In 1867, Cottier moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow. In 1869, he moved to London to open a branch, leaving his assistant, Andrew Wells in Scotland. Cottier's style was greatly influenced by Morris. He founded Australian and American branches in 1873 and imported and dealt in French and Dutch art and furniture.
J. and W. Guthrie founded a decorating studio in 1860 which grew to prominence after Wells moved to Australia for Cottier, leaving them its work. John Guthrie moved to London to operate a branch studio while William Guthrie stayed in Scotland. They employed C.W. Whall in 1890 and Charles Rennie Mackintosh about 1893 to produce decorative schemes and what are now Mackintosh's earliest identifiable designs for stained glass.
The Glasgow School of Art became an important factor in the cultural life of the city. When Fra Newberry became its director in 1885, he introduced decorative arts to supplement the conventional easel painting. Mackintosh attended the school from 1885. He was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and the Japanese, but is not thought to have been very dependent on any outside influences.
George Walton got the first commission for Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms, which he designed with Mackintosh. James Herbert MacNair and Mackintosh married the two MacDonald sisters, also artists. Mackintosh was an architect, but made himself responsible for the decoration of his buildings. His windows were in abstract patterns. His designs were published, and influenced the Vienna Secession school of art nouveau.
Charles E. Stewart, son of a stained glass craftsman, invented a "cameo process." Instead of glass painting, heads and hands were cut and etched. In 1903 this was supplanted by the invention of acid etching, developed from the chemical isolation of fluoride in 1886.
An Irish stained glass craftsman, Michael O'Connor won a gold medal in the Exhibition International in Kensington, London, 1862. He was a heraldic painter from Dublin who moved to London in 1823 to study with Willement. He returned to set up his own studio in Dublin and moved in 1842 to Bristol, then in 1845, to London. Near the end of the nineteenth century, Edward Martyn ordered a stained glass window from Christopher Whall for his family's church at Ardrahan, Ireland.
Martyn, who had founded the Palestrina Choir and the Abbey Theatre of Dublin, was interested in starting an Irish school of stained glass. He wrote, "If we are determined to have bad work, it is better to have it bad Irish than foreign." He arranged for three windows in the new Cathedral of Loughrea to be executed by Whall in Ireland using Irish craftsmen. Whall was not able to stay continuously supervising the work in Ireland, so in 1901, he sent his chief assistant A.E.Child and two glaziers.
Child and Sarah Purser, a portrait painter who had become interested in the project, then set up a stained glass department in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. The students helped in the execution of the Loughrea windows. In 1903, Sarah Purser and Edward Martyn organized An Tur Gloine (The Tower of Glass), a cooperative workshop for stained glass, mosaics and other related crafts. Purser ran the business until her death at the age of 94 in 1943, at which time, Catherine O'Brien took over the ownership.
Harry Clarke was the only Irish stained glass artist of the time not associated with An Tur Gloine. When Clarke was young, Irish stained glass was poor and usually ordered from pattern books. When A.E. Child began to teach at the Metropolitan School of Art, Clarke became one of his students at night while working by day in his father's decorating business. He won a traveling scholarship and visited French cathedrals. A series of windows depicting Irish saints for Cork University's Honan Hostel Chapel established his reputation. He is also well known for his book illustrations. At his father's death, he and his brother continued the business. Clarke's designs are mystical, otherworldly and opulently detailed. There is nothing else like them. Considering that Clarke died of tuberculosis at the age of 42, he accomplished a large body of work, mostly based on themes from Irish literature.

The Gothic Revival in France, Germany and Italy

The art of stained glass died out more completely in France and Germany than in England. It was first revived in France in 1800 at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Sevres under a Mr. Dihl, who came from England. Guillaume Brice researched early methods. The chemist, Alexandre Brogniart, director of manufacture at Sevres, conducted much research to discover medieval techniques. He wrote in 1802, "the art of painting on glass is not lost: we have all the means to exercise it." Nevertheless, it took him 20 years after that to find the formulas. (Catherine Brisac, A Thousand Years of Stained Glass, p. 145)
From 1828 to 1854 Brogniart, with the patronage of King Louis Philippe, produced windows for the royal chapel at Dreux. They are painted with enamels on sheets of glass so large that firing them must certainly have been difficult. Artists Ingres and Delacroix, supplied the designs for the figures, and the surroundings were by Viollet-le-Duc.
A giant in the French Neo-Gothic movement is the architect and artist, Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Viollet-le-Duc worked all his life to restore historic buildings such as the Chateau de Pierrefonds, the walled city of Carcassonne, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. He was interested in all periods, but the medieval was scorned at the time, and he felt he had to save it. He thought of it as the French national style. Though his restoration methods are considered inapporpriate today, had he not acted many treasures would have been lost.
Unlike other architects of his day, Viollet-le-Duc had practical skills as well as theoretical knowledge. He wrote the immense Dictionnaire Raisonne de l'Architecture Francais which contains a section about medieval stained glass.
In spite of the interest of the king, the methods used at Dreux did not survive the increasing knowledge of medieval techniques; that is, glass colored in the pot, painted with metallic oxide, fired and joined with lead. In 1843, Count Charles de l'Escalopier translated Theophilus' Diversarium Artium Schedula, Theophili Presbyteri et Monachi into French. This signaled great restoration activity in Europe by methods that are condemned today. However, they were undertaken after much study. Full sized tracings were made of the windows before they were removed. During the work, architects, master glass painters and archaeologists made inspections in the studio.
Restoration taught glass craftsmen the old techniques, but they did not have today's scientific methods. They treated corroded and blackened glass with hydrofluoric acid and scraped with metal blades. This was the best they knew, and they did not hesitate to replace panels they considered beyond repair.
In 1844, Adolphe Didron Sr. started the magazine Les Annales Archaelogique, which featured religious articles aimed at both artists and clergy. In 1839, the first modern "archaeological" window was installed in Saint Germaine l'Auxerrois in Paris; Didron produced the iconography, Louis Steinheil designed and executed the cartoon and Reboulleau, a chemist, made the glass.
Ancient windows influenced the style of the new. In 1845, Thevenot adapted the iconography and style of several windows in Bourges Cathedral to make windows for the Romanesque Church of Notre Dame du Port in Clermont-Ferrand. There was a wide use of medieval motifs during this time.
Parallel with restoration and imitation of the medieval style of stained glass, the "picture window" derived from the Renaissance continued to interest some practitioners. This style consisted of a single composition extending over several lancets designed in a more realistic, less decorative style.
In 1809, in a way that is typical of students, a group of young artists in Vienna defied their academic teachers and founded an art cooperative they called "The Brotherhood of Saint Luke." Within a year, they were living in a commune in an abandoned monastery in Rome. They thought of themselves as following Albrecht Durer, who had traveled to Rome to study, and as being influenced by Raphael and Perugino. They were called The Nazarenes, first in mockery, but later with grudging admiration. They influenced the English Pre-Raphaelites, led austere lives and produced art with religious subjects, not all of it too facile. Best known of the group are J.F. Overbeck and Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Reproductions of their works were circulated throughout Europe.
The art of the Nazarenes was readily adaptable to stained glass because they used flat colors and bold outlines. They influenced stained glass even though they did not work in the medium.
Further German influences include Michael Sigismund Frank, who did his first glass painting in 1804, became the first manager of the Royal Bavarian Glass Painting Studio in 1827; and Max Ainmiller of Munich supplied some windows for Peterhouse in Cambridge University in 1855. Many consider Ainmiller's most important work to be windows for the Cologne Cathedral in 1848.
Franz Mayer founded a studio in Munich, which at first, produced sculpture and marble altars. In 1860, the studio began making stained glass. The studio restored medieval windows and executed new windows all over the world. It is impossible to estimate the quantity and quality of the windows they sent into the United States. Their branch offices in London and New York functioned until World War I. They are famous for heroic sized picture windows, extremely representational, with all the saints unmistakably German, that is, fair skinned, robust and hearty figures. Still in business, they now fabricate for free-lance designers.
Francis Xavier Zettler ran the Royal Bavarian studio from 1870. Zettler was a recognized master who is held in high regard today, yet little has been written in English of him.
The Oidtmann studios for glass and mosaic were founded in 1857 by a medical doctor and student of chemistry, Dr. H. Oidtmann. Working with glass slides inspired him to study stained glass. He founded a small studio as a sideline, but it soon grew into a major enterprise with 100 employees. At his death, his son Heinrich II, also a medical doctor and stained glass scholar, took over the stained glass studio. He wrote the book: Rhenish Stained Glass from the 12th to the 16th Centuries. He, too, died in his 50s, leaving the completion of his second volume to his son, Heinrich Oidtmann III. When Heinrich III died at the age of 40, his wife continued the studio. After the devastation wrought by World War II, Heinrich's two sons rebuilt the studio, which is well known in Germany today for executing the work of many prominent designers.

Art Nouveau

The Worlds' Fair was originally a forum in which visitors from all over the world were able to evaluate and imitate each other's products. The first Worlds' Fair was the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851. It was organized under the patronage of Prince Albert to show off the products of the Industrial Revolution. The increasing wealth of the middle class and their increasing mobility, due to railroads, induced the crowds to come.
The poor artistic quality of the machine-made goods displayed inspired the Arts and Crafts Movement and its desire to restore handcrafted quality and good design.
In 1862 in London, Japan participated for the first time in a World Exhibition. The western world first saw the Japanese art and handcrafts, which were to become extremely popular by 1867.
In 1894, Tiffany glass was first seen in Paris when S. (Siegfried) Bing first exhibited oriental arts and ceramics. Bing was a key figure in the history of decorative arts. His Salon de l'Art Nouveau in Paris gave name to the movement.
Bing commissioned Tiffany to fabricate ten panels designed by top fine arts painters: Bonnard, Grasset, Ibels, Ranson, Roussel, Serusier, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vallotton and Vuillard. Most of this group belonged to the Nabis (prophets) whose credo was to use flat areas of bold color heavily outlined in reaction to impressionism.
The principal characteristic of the Art Nouveau style is its sinuous line. The principal subject is nature, whether stylized or realistic. The style varies somewhat from country to country. For example, the English did not use much opalescent glass and backgrounds are often light quarries with a silver stained motif in each; their domestic windows are similar to romantic book illustrations. German windows, on the other hand, show more heraldry, landscapes with castles, hunting and tavern scenes.
The sinuosity is prevalent in the Belgian and French decorative windows. The work of the Spaniard Joachim Mir is hard to tell from Tiffany's stained glass. Windows illustrating national legends by Hungarians Sandor Nagy and Miksa Roth seem to be inspired by Morris.
Virtually every country produced "lady" windows like Eugene Grasset's often-copied Spring. Executed by Felix Gaudin in 1884, it resembled the ladies on magazine covers and posters. Toward the end of the period some "Dignity of Labor" windows were popular. This is also the era of the large dome and skylight made possible by engineering developments.
Artists of most countries used some opalescent glass, although drapery glass and plating several layers were generally carried farthest in America. Enamel painting was generally used, not always successfully. German windows of the period show an artistic use of many mechanical glasses. The windows contain many molded and cut jewels and can be considered a precursor of faceted glass.
The term "Art Deco" developed during the Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in 1925. Synthetic materials such as neon, Plexiglas, polyester, resin and plastics began to appear. It was at the 1937 World's Fair that the world first saw what we now call faceted glass.

American Opalescent Glass

John La Farge is known as the inventor of the opalescent stained glass window and is the father of the American mural movement in the late nineteenth century. He was regarded as the premier American muralist of his time and an eloquent art critic. La Farge studied painting in France and with William Hunt of Newport, Rhode Island.
La Farge became fascinated with the suggestion of highlights and shadows in irregularly made opalescent glass and how the glass muted bright light and created complimentary tones to adjacent colors. He was intrigued by the potential to render realistic subjects relying on the effects within the glass rather than by painting on glass.
La Farge's earliest opalescent glass experiments were conducted at Francis Thill's glass house in Brooklyn; glass discs made by James Baker, a Manhattan window artist, also inspired La Farge. La Farge and Tiffany independently financed the experimental production of opalescent window glass conducted at Louis Heiht's glass house, also in Brooklyn. Tiffany quickly began the production of pressed glass tiles.
La Farge and Tiffany's friendship came to a bitter end over the rights to use opalescent glass in windows, which La Farge patented in 1880. Tiffany filed a similar patent in 1881.
Their glass experiments resulted in opalescent glass with multiple colors mixed in the same sheet. Under their direction, confetti glass; streamer; ridged; drapery; and thick, faceted glass nuggets and chunks were made at Heidt's shop. Several glass houses also made great varieties of pressed glass jewels. In 1887, Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company began production; in 1889, they won a gold medal at the Paris World Exposition for their multi-colored window glass.
La Farge also experimented with molding opalescent glass to depict distinct subjects. An excellent example is the molded glass flowers in Peonies Blown in the Wind, made for the Henry Marquand house in Newport, Rhode Island. He also experimented with what he called "cloisonne" glass, which consisted of small bits of colored glass contained by wires and fused in a kiln. The Old Philosopher for Crane Memorial Library in Quincy, Massachusetts was the first example of this rare technique.
Several of Tiffany's early windows exhibited the evocative potential in the new glass. A non-representational window for his apartment and the Eggplant window for the George Kemp residence in New York City used the irregularities in the material to suggest organic subjects, anticipating naturalistic approaches to Art Nouveau design.
In the early 1880s, there was a small group of artists who worked with La Farge and Tiffany who were also attracted to the medium of opalescent glass windows. The most important of these early artists were Maitland Armstrong, Francis Lathrop, Mary Tillinghast, Thomas Wright, John Calvin, Frank Millet and Joseph Lauber. Armstrong, Tillinghast, Wright and Calvin continued careers as full-time glass artists.
The realistic potential of the new materials to depict figures within natural settings was quickly realized by La Farge in his Infant Bacchus, done for the Washington Thomas House in Beverly, Massachusetts and by Armstrong in his Annunciation, crated for New York City's Church of the Ascension.
Early in her career, Tillinghast created Jacob's Dream in New York's Grace Church. Her window was a fantastic vision of angels ascending a ladder within billowing clouds of multi-colored opalescent glass.
Thomas Wright assisted La Farge in creating several Symbolist Style works. Dawn at the Edge of Night and Autumn are works of stunning richness of color and detailed craftsmanship.
Armstrong created an Aesthetic style tour-de-force in his windows at St. Columbia's Chapel in Middletown, Rhode Island. These windows are a joyful kaleidoscope of styles and opalescent materials available in the mid-1880s.
Lauber depicted figures of lyrical Renaissance grace in the Congregational Church in Montclair, New Jersey. Two spectacular engineering accomplishments were the stained glass dome in the Library of Congress by Herman Schladermundt and the Appellate Court Building in Manhattan, by Maitland Armstrong.
Persons of skill and taste designed opalescent windows in many areas of the country, including Donald McDonald and Frederick Crowinshield in Boston and J. Horace Rudy of Philadelphia. The oldest existing studio in the country, the J. & R. Lamb Studio, created a beautiful series of American historic scenes for the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.
The largest studio from those times is still the best known today: the Tiffany Glass Company, which employed hundreds of people and produced thousands of windows. The company relied on a department of artists to design the windows. Artists Edward Sperry, J.A. Holzerm Agnes Northrop and Frederick Wilson were longtime employees of the studio. Wilson was the most prominent, designing strong, majestic figures such as in the Ivanhoe window. Wilson moved to Los Angeles in the early 1920s and designed painted Gothic windows. Northrop stayed with the firm for almost its entire existence, specializing in richly detailed landscape windows. Clara Driscoll designed many of the most popular lampshades, including the Dragonfly.

American Neo-Gothic Stained Glass

Makers of neo-Gothic windows referred to stained glass as, "the handmaid of the architecture." The initial impetus to develop stained glass in the United States in the early nineteenth century was the early Gothic Revival among Anglican and Episcopalian congregations. The architecture called for decorative leaded windows to compliment the churches. The major American Revival architects, Richard Upjohn and Minard Lafever, designed the landmark Trinity Church and St. Anne and the Holy Trinity, that were discussed earlier.
Gothic was the preferred church style in America from the late 1840s until the War Between the States; the stained glass trade gained a foothold during those years. Like the Classical, the Gothic style never disappears, but reemerges in popularity from time to time. The early twentieth century was a very rich period for American Gothic stained glass.
William Willet laid the foundation for a new twentieth century revival when he founded his studio in Philadelphia in 1898. He designed windows of painted, richly colored antique glass with his figures reflecting a full-figured Renaissance influence that was the taste of the times. His wife, Anne Lee Willet, who ran the studio for a time after his death, assisted him in his work. His son, Henry Willet, was also a Gothic revivalist, but his preference was for small, jewel-like, early French windows.
The most prominent spokesman for the Gothic Revival was Charles J. Connick. He lectured widely and wrote Adventures in Light and Color, the most respected and eloquent publication on the art form in the twentieth century. Connick expressed the opinion that stained glass's first job was to serve the architectural effect; this opinion was in sharp contrast to the painterly effect that had dominated during the Opalescent era. Connick founded his Boston-based studio in 1913.
Ralph Adams Cram, a Boston architect, was the most prominent spokesman for Gothic-style churches; many of Connick's windows went into his buildings. Joseph G. Reynolds worked with Connick before founding Reynolds, Francis and Rohnstock in 1923. Wilbur H. Burnham began work in 1904 and had his own studio by 1922. All these Boston studios designed windows to serve the architecture.
Henry Wynd Young and J. Gordon Guthrie were New York artists whose windows feature elongated, graceful figures who exhibited more painterly character. Studios all over the country were attracted to Gothic designs. Several of the more notable were Emil Frei in St. Louis, R. Tolan Wright in Cleveland and Nicola D'Ascenzo in Philadephia.
Otto Heinigke was typical of these. A first generation American, unable to make a living at fine art painting, he went to work for John Riordan whose studio was successfully competing with Munich painted windows. Then, in 1890, he founded a studio with Owen J. Bowen. Bowen had formerly worked for both Tiffany and La Farge. A visit to the cathedrals of Europe inspired Heinigke with a love for medieval stained glass. Heinigke's Statue of Liberty window on the cover of Stained Glass, Summer 1986, is opalescent.
Cram's favorite stained glass studio was that of Charles Connick. Connick had apprenticed in the studio of the Rudy Brothers in Pittsburgh where he worked on opalescent glass. He later apologized for once admiring it. He moved to Boston to found his own studio and met Cram. Cram called him an American craftsman, "who can do a window as it should be done, with the spirit and technique that must have impelled the masters at Chartres and Paris." (John Gilber Lloyd, Stained Glass in America, p. 67)
Connick said he used Viollet-le-Duc's chapter on stained glass in the Dictionnaire Raisonne as the foundation of his work. Connick wrote a very popular book, Adventures in Light and Color, which he dedicated to Cram. He remained president of the Stained Glass Association of America for nine consecutive years during which time he ran it like a dictator. His second in command, Orin Skinner, was editor of Stained Glass for 15 years. Since Connick was closely associated with the architect who was the accepted authority, everyone adopted his principles without question.
The stained glass craftspeople working in the neo-Gothic style understood very little about medieval iconography, which no one (other than a few scholars) had cared about for centuries. They imitated the color palette of Chartres, principally red and blue, with touches of secondary colors. They imitated the forms, medallion windows for the aisles and large figures for the clerestories. They imitated medieval figure drawing, once called "stained glass attitudes." Since the ideal in the church was a "dim religious light" they imitated the patina of the ages with thin washes of glass paint and picked out highlights.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Stained Glass and the Machine Age

Wright studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin where he read Ruskin and adopted Pugin's philosophy as his guiding principle. He embraced the integrity of materials; stone should look like stone, wood like wood, glass like glass. Wright's designs integrated buildings with landscape and furnishings. He introduced a new direction towards open interiors, a perfect setting for clear glass doors and windows.
"Nothing is more annoying to me than any tendency towards realism of form in window glass to get mixed up with the view outside," Wright wrote in an article in Architectural Record in 1928. His designs featured straight parallel lines and small squares in repeated patterns. The glass from the Coonley house has colorful circles like children's balloons. The Martin house in Buffalo has over 100 leaded windows and a gallery between the house and a greenhouse. Unity Temple has a skylight of amber squares "to get a sense of a happy cloudless day...no matter what the weather." (Erne R. and Florenc Frueh, Chicago Stained Glass, p. 64)
One of America's greatest architects was Chicago-based Louis Sullivan; he also designed geometric stained glass and frequently used opalescent glass. Like Wright, Sullivan designed the glass as an integral component of the architecture.
C. R. Ashbee, an English craftsman, visited Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago. Theirs was a lifelong friendship and Ashbee, in 1901, in his journal quoted Wright, "My god is machinery, and the art of the future will be the expression of the individual artist through the thousand powers of the machine... the machine doing all those things that the individual workman cannot do. The creative artist is the man who controls all this and understands it." This emphasizes one of the most interesting aspects of the age, the preoccupation with machinery as evidenced in art.
Tommaso Marinetti in his Manifesto on Futurism, 1909, wrote, "A roaring motorcar which runs like a machine gun is more beautiful than the winged Victory of Samothrace." (William Fleming, Arts & Ideas, p.433) George Antheil composed Ballet Mechanique, a musical piece scored for planes, percussion and an airplane propeller. His piano pieces include Airplane Sonata and Mechanisms. Arthur Honegger composed Pacific 231, glorifying a locomotive. Parade -- a ballet by Jean Cocteau with music by Eric Satie -- was staged in 1917 by the Diaghilev Ballet. The dancers wore costumes suggesting skyscrapers. The score included typewriter noises. A ballet called L'Homme et la Machine with a stage set of machinery was performed at the Casino de Paris in 1934.
Stained glass also glorified the machine. A 1927 French exhibition catalogue including work by Jeannin shows a series of stained glass windows in a newspaper office depicting transportation of news by auto and boat. Paule and Max Ingrand, in the Paris Exposition of 1937, showed stained glass panels of an airplane, an ocean liner and a jazz band. In the same exhibit J. Largillier had a panel of a train. The great movie palaces of the 20s and 30s with exotic decors featuring artificially lighted panels and giant skylights and opalescent glass light fixtures are a true expression of art deco.

Twentieth Century Stained Glass in Switzerland and France

In Switzerland, the first symptoms of a renewal are found in 1895, thanks to the competition opened for new windows in the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, Fribourg. A Polish artist, Joseph Mehoffer, won the contest. The setting of those windows is a decisive date in the history of modern stained glass because they announced a renaissance on all sides. They were installed between 1906 and 1935.
The French artist Maurice Denis discovering the work of Mehoffer in 1916 wrote in his journal, "This is a kind of stained glass all made new. It is newer and more beautiful than we make in France." Some interpret this as an indication that modern French stained glass was really born in Switzerland and inspired by a Pole.
Mehoffer's windows are responsible for turning more than one painter to stained glass. Under their spell, Alexandre Cingria changed from a painter in oils to decorative art. Producing windows whose brilliance dispersed the shadows cast by trite religious rubbish, he and his brother, Charles Albert, began to write criticism of the current ecclesiastical art.
Even more effective were the results of Cingria's work, windows of color so splendid that he was called "the Tintoretto of stained glass." In 1916, Cingria, Maurice Denis and Marcel Poncet collaborated on the decoration of Saint Paul's Church in Geneva. Cingria became the leader of a group of young artists who called themselves the Society of Saint Luke. In Protestant Swiss Romond, they engineered a rebirth of Catholic arts. Thanks to Cingria, this was the most fruitful of all similar European movements.
Worthy of much acclaim are Swiss artists Augusto Giacometti who is a brilliant colorist and Louis Rivier whose work is reminiscent of art nouveau style.
Hans Stocker and Otto Staiger shared the same goals -- to revitalize sacred art. In German Switzerland, they started a group they called Rot-Blau (red-blue) which flourished from 1926 to 1932. They did the windows in Saint Anthony's church in Basel. The ideas of these two Swiss groups influenced the Dominican Fathers Couturier and Regamy who took over the review, Art Sacre, founded by the Society of Saint Luke. They received so much publicity on the church at Assy that they quite overshadowed the earlier groups who had first voiced the same goals.
Louis Barillet and Jacques Le Chevallier founded a similar group called L'Arch et les Artisans de l'Autel, (The Arc and the Artisans of the Altar). Regardless of whether Maurice Denis took the new ideas from Switzerland to France, he collaborated with Marguerite Hure on windows in a landmark church, Notre Dame du Raincy, 1922-23, a concrete church with walls constructed of colored glass.
Since 1870, the city of Nancy had been a center of arts and crafts. Jacques Gruber worked there with Daum Freres Glassworks. A process of casing colored glass over white glass was first developed for decoration on vases. In 1893, Gruber adapted this cameo process to stained glass by etching with hydrofluoric acid, the same process touted as original, when introduced by Charles Marq as a way to fabricate Marc Chagall's designs.
Father Alain Couturier, an artist, spent the years of World War II in New York, where he met many ex-patriot artists. After the war, he returned to France and began work on the important church Notre Dame de Tout Grace at Assy. Windows by Marguerite Hure had already been installed in the crypt and one window designed by Rouault had been contracted to be fabricated by Jean Hebert-Stevens.
The earliest windows designed by Chagall and executed in 1957 by Paul Bony are in the baptistry at Assy, as is his ceramic mural of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Because the community housed a large tuberculosis sanitarium, the aisle windows contain saints associated with healing by Maurice Brianchon, Father Couturier, Paul Bony, Adaline Hebert-Stevens and Paul Bereot. The church at Assy is an exciting one artistically, although its failure may be from a lack of homogeneity. It was the center of heated controversy.
Critics not only attacked it for daring to contain "modern art" but for having art by other than Roman Catholic artists. Because it stood firm, other churches had the courage to employ important artists who worked in contemporary idioms. Alfred Manessier designed the first abstract windows for the small country church at Les Bre[accent]seux and created a rare jewel there.

Twentieth Century German Stained Glass

H. H. Arnasson says that late 19th century German painting was "enmeshed in sentimental, naturalistic idealism." (History of Modern Art, p. 154) This was also true of German stained glass. Think of the products of Mayer and Zettler. Revolutionary art movements proliferated in Germany and Austria about the end of the nineteenth century. They joined, broke up and rejoined like amoeba. Nearly all groups published manifestoes, most of which were muddy in concept. Werkbund and Werkstatte continued arts and crafts traditions. There was a little interest in stained glass in these groups, but not as much as in their English counterparts.
Theo van Doesburg was associated with de Stijl in Holland. In 1920, he met Walter Gropius in Berlin who invited him to come to Weimar to give two courses at the Bauhaus. This fine school united all disciplines of art and craft, its influence spreading more widely when it was closed by the Nazis and its staff fled from the country, many to the United States.
Josef Albers was doing stained glass at the Bauhaus. In 1922 to 1924, he made windows for a few villas in Berlin, now destroyed. Van Doesburg worked with Jean Arp and Sophie Tauber Arp in 1926 to produce a series of stained glass windows, their geometric compositions depending for interest upon thick lead lines.
The real progenitor of contemporary German stained glass was Johann Thorn-Prikker (1868-1932). He was a restrained expressionist and he produced fabric design, murals, mosaics, posters, and illustrations, in addition to a completely new style of stained glass. His first commission was for the fenestration of The Three Kings Church in Neuss, which he produced in 1911-1912. These windows were an important critical success but the conservative church authorities refused to allow them to be set until 1919. He worked in subject, symbol and non-objective styles.
Heinrich Campendonk was one of Thorn-Prikker's first pupils. He produced a monumental Crucifixion window for a cloister in Marienthal near Wesil in 1926. His windows for Bonn Cathedral, 1929-1931, are notable for lyrical color and cubist influence. Anton Wendling (1891-1965), was also a pupil of Thorn-Prikker's. Wendling is best known for monumental windows in the choir of Aachen Cathedral. They blend some figures with geometric ornament.
Erhard Klonk is another stained glass designer who worked in several media. He began his artistic life as a theatrical designer and a fine arts' painter. He designed mosaic, laminated, fused glass and an interesting shallow carved wall technique called sgraffito. His stained glass designs are figurative, playful and naive.
Some consider Georg Meistermann (1911-1990) the most versatile German stained glass designer. In 1938, he produced his first stained glass, but this was destroyed in World War II. He was especially busy after the war providing stained glass for old churches that had lost their windows, such as Saint Marien in Koln-Kalk, (Cologne) fabricated by Oidtmann. He is well known for a giant abstract window in a Cologne radio station.
Ludwig Schaffrath has been called the most monumental stained glass designer. After Technical School he became the assistant and collaborator of Wendling, who somewhat influenced him. He renounced all pictorial art in favor of decorative lines. His first stained glass installation was the colorless glass windows in the cloister of Aachen cathedral. He also designs large mosaics of stone, glass and other materials. In his maturity, he had the courage to travel in new directions and has achieved new heights in his window wall in a railroad station in Omiya, Japan, which was fabricated by Oidtmann. This project is still abstract, but in the true sense of the word, inspired by light and water. It is right for the location in scale and color, which is bright, not monochromatic like his earlier work. He has great influence on young artists through his traveling and teaching workshops. His work always attracts publicity.
Johannes Schreiter's first designs after school showed the influence of abstract painting. He developed a new style using light filtered through glass with prominent geometric lead lines. His later work was of a style that he calls "brand collage" and was inspired by burned paper. Jochem Poensgen, born 1931, leaned heavily on colorless industrial glass. He used sandblasting, tempering and incorporating plaques of cement. Carefully controlled light penetrates between repeated shapes. Wilhelm Bushulte, born 1923, turns to figurative abstract art. He developed his ideas in relation to architecture, as did his contemporaries, but his shapes and colors were more exciting than the usual German monochrome. He uses saturated color balanced against white opal glass.
The period after World War II was devoted to restoration, rebuilding and replacing destroyed buildings and stained glass. A new generation of stained glass artists reached adulthood after World War II, some copying their masters, and some developing along new lines.

Twentieth Century Stained Glass in England and Other Countries

From William Morris forward, the English produced a lively amount of work, but in more or less the same style, by more or less the same studios. Replacing glass destroyed during World War II resulted in some new work, just as it did in France and Germany. Most significant of all was the new Coventry Cathedral built in 1962. A whole new building was constructed at right angles to the ruins of the old. The two are separated from each other by John Hutton's great sand carved window wall which allows a view of the ruins from the nave and of the whole nave from the grassy ruins through layers of wheel-engraved saints and angels. This is the masterpiece among masterpieces in this giant edifice.
The small stained glass department at the Royal College of Art began from the Morris tradition. A highly successful college exhibition in 1950 under the directorship of Lawrence Lee and an article published in the college journal brought the department to the attention of the architect Basil Spence. He approached the college about stained glass for Coventry and the students were invited to submit sketches. Scholars were to be paid like professionals to quiet any accusation of unfair competition.
Geoffrey Clarke, Keith New and Lawrence Lee won the commission to do the aisle windows as a team. These are on an angle, are seen from the chancel, and throw light on the altar. Spence chose the colors and themes; youth: green, the first flush of adulthood: red; midlife: multi-colored; old age: deep purple with flecks of gold; after-life: golden. The designs are semi-abstract.
Each of the three artists designed two windows in their color preference. Margaret Traherne was chosen to design windows in dalle de verre for the Chapel of Unity. The Baptistry bank of windows was designed by John Piper and fabricated by Patrick Reyntiens. Piper worked in many media before he turned to stained glass as his career matured. The collaboration of these two artists on windows for the Oundle School Chapel led to the commission to do the baptistry at Coventry. They produced the most lively, interesting work in England.
Patrick Reyntiens' name is probably even better known for writing the first how-to-do-it book of recent vintage. The Technique of Stained Glass is very complete, geared to a professional approach and is considered by many to be the best of its kind.

Hungary

Erwin Bossanyi was one of the greatest stained glass craftsmen in our era. He was born in Hungary and studied at the Budapest Academy of Arts and Crafts; he was exiled during World War I and interned in France. He worked for 15 years in Germany and, in 1934, fled to England, accounting for his inclusion with the English craftspeople. His work is in the Tate Gallery in London, Canterbury Cathedral and the Washington Cathedral.
In Bossanyi's obituary, John Bayless wrote, "He poured his life and soul into his plea to mankind to turn the world into a community of love and mutual understanding." (Stained Glass, Summer 1975, p. 86) After so much suffering and exile, his colors remained joyous. His themes are both naive and sophisticated. He alone did the design and fabrication of his work so his output was limited.

Canada

The earliest continuing studio in North America, founded in 1850, in Toronto, Canada, is Robert McCausland Ltd. The first McCausland was trained in Ireland. This studio does traditional windows, and has done two-thirds of all the stained glass in Canada.
Yvonne Williams, a native Canadian, after apprenticing with Connick and working briefly in the United States, opened her studio in Toronto in 1934. She trained many craftspeople such as Ellen Simon. There is also a group of Canadians doing abstract architectural stained glass heavily influenced by the modern Germans.

Australia and New Zealand

As Australians and New Zealanders became wealthy enough in the late 19th century, they imported stained glass from England. An unusual feature of it was the use of native flora and fauna as decorative elements. The depression of the 1930s put the few native studios out of business.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Australia experienced a cultural awakening. The arts produced, though based on European models, had an Australian emphasis. In the 1970s, a group of young artists began making autonomous panels. New Zealand has a lively tradition of decorative domestic windows. New Zealand students returned home after studying in the United States with news of the German influence. They also trace some influence to Japanese visitors.
In 1981, Ludwig Schaffrath lectured and gave workshops in Australia. An exhibition of contemporary German glass accompanied him to Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide. He also lectured at Langer, New Zealand.

Africa

Paul Blomkamp wrote a letter that was printed in Stained Glass in the Fall issue of 1983 in which he described his work in stained glass in South Africa. Because lead came was impossible to find, he began to use resin bonding but using thin glass, not dalles. Later, he bought a lead milling machine from Germany. Leon Theron is producing faceted glass in South Africa.
An American, Reed Harvey is teaching stained glass in Liberia. He and his pupils have created church windows that have a primitive naivete in Monrovia.

Mexico

In 1875, an Italian-Swiss craftsman, Claudio Pellandi, made the first window glass in Mexico. In 1900, he established a studio for leaded glass, etching, beveling and silvering mirrors. In 1898, two North Americans, MacDaniel and Wineburgh advertised "Artistic Windows." When MacDaniel died, Wineburgh merged his studio with Pellandi's. Juan Navarrete was their designer. He taught Francisco Lugo, whom in turn taught Enrique Villasenor.
In 1920, Villasen[accent]or set up a stained glass department in the Architectural School of the National University of Mexico. In 1929, Diego Rivera produced designs for stained glass windows in the Palace of Health. The windows were executed by Villasen[accent]or. Mexican stained glass consistently won medals at International Expositions. In 1982, Rufino Tamayo designed a laminated glass mural that was executed by Glasindustrie Van Tetterode in Amsterdam. At 25' by 25', it is the largest laminated work of art in the world and it is installed in a museum in Mexico City.

The Netherlands

Sometimes a stained glass artist is associated with more than one country, or at least, his principal work was not done in his native land. Arnold Maas was Dutch, worked for a time at the Rambusch Studio in New York, but is associated principally with Puerto Rico where his most distinctive work is found. He worked in leaded and faceted glass, mosaic and a process of his own he called "opalino" which seems to be similar to a process called "opus sectile", which uses flat opaque glass, cut to shape, painted, fired, then used like a mosaic on a background and grouted.
While in New York, Maas worked with another better-known Dutch artist, Joep Nicholas. Nicholas' grandfather started a studio in Roermond, Holland. When Joep was young he studied law, and painted for a hobby. When he began to win prizes for art, he slipped into the family business. He is responsible for impressive windows in New Church, Delft and New Church, Amsterdam. In 1940, he left Holland for New York. His daughter is carrying on the family tradition of working in stained glass.
Belgium and Holland have a grand tradition of Renaissance stained glass. Since World War II, a large group of artists including Eugene Yoors, J. Hendricx, Michel Martens and F. Colpaert have worked there in the contemporary style.

Italy

In 1902, an exposition that spurred artists and decorators to explore art nouveau designs was held in Turin. Giovanni Beltrami from Milan produced decorative windows for Casino Pellegrino in Vichy, France between 1905 and 1907. These are not very original. Scipione Ballardini, born 1889, was responsible for the revival of stained glass in Verona in the twentieth century. He learned from a French master and was engaged in restoring damage after World War II.
After his death, his studio continued under Ghidoli. Other prominent Italian artists include Salvatore Cavallini, Albano Poli, Giuseppe Nenci, Lino Boschetto, Lindo and Allesandro Grassi and Feodoro Wolf-Ferrari.

Poland

The windows in Fribourg by Jozef Mehoffer (1869-1946) were mentioned in relation to Switzerland. The artist studied in Paris where he was associated with the Nabis and exhibited paintings with the Vienna Secessionists. Some of his windows exist in Wawel Cathedral as well as in Switzerland. Stanislaw Wyspianski created stained glass windows in a Franciscan Church in Krakow, Poland.
In 1958, the Stained Glass Association of America was represented at the World Trade Fair in Poznan, Poland. Panels by six member studios and some apprentices were displayed along with many photographs. Henry Lee Willet was the official representative. He and a Polish stained glass craftswoman Maria Powalsz demonstrated the process for six weeks. At that time, he reported six stained glass studios in all of Poland. One had just been put out of business for stockpiling materials. When Willet returned, he brought with him a short film of the Dobrzanski stained glass studio in Krakow. The craftsmen are shown working on a set of saints for an orthodox monastery which are very beautiful and resemble Byzantine icons.

Scandinavia

Emmanuel Vigelund, a Norwegian master craftsman, was born in 1875 and attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Christianna from 1898 to 1902. He then traveled and worked in Kroyer, Copenhagen and Paris. Vigelund won the Henricksen prize to study stained glass in France. His work has the quality of a book illustration, somewhat reminiscent of Harry Clarke's.
Einar Forseth designed five windows for the new Coventry Cathedral in England, a gift from the churches of Sweden. Nina Tryggvadottir, an Icelandic artist, has work fabricated by Oidtmann in Germany. She designs with paper collage. Other prominent Scandinavian names include Bo Viktor Beskow, Sweden; Leifur Breidfjord, Iceland; Lennart Rhoda, Sweden; and Sven Erixson, Sweden.

Russia & the Baltic Countries

There is no tradition of stained glass in the Orthodox churches in Russia. When USSR invaded Lithuania and Latvia after World War II, Russia adopted their traditions.
Stained glass has been made in Lithuania for at least four centuries. The earliest stained glass artist to work in the Riga Cathedral was Anton Dietrich, who trained at Mayer's in Munich and at Bruno Urban's in Dresden. Alfred Kahlert, Franz Weber and Ernst Tod made additional windows for the cathedral in Riga. They are typical of turn of the century German work.
Latvian stained glass craftsmen include such men as Karlis Brencens, who set up a course in an art school in 1920 and Janis Rozentals (1866-1917) who created patriotic themes.
Stasys Usinskas (1905-1974) is the father of Lithuanian stained glass. He studied in Paris and his work is very representational. Algimentas Stoskus, born 1925, produced innovative dalle de verre using very thick slabs. His work is non-representational. His pupils include Kazimieras Morkunas, whose dalles look to be molded to shape; Antanas Garbuskas, who uses both dalles and leaded glass to make allegorical figures and conventional ornament; Anorte Mackelaite; Filomena Usinskaite; Kostantinus Satunas and Bronius Bruzas.

Israel

Marc Chagall's designs for stained glass in the chapel of the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem aroused everyone's interest. Simon Studios in Reims, France fabricated these in 1962; the panels were displayed in New York city before they were installed. Their theme is the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

Japan

Katsutoshi Kuno, a member of the Stained Glass Association of America, reported that there were 1,000 stained glass artists in Japan in 1980.Unozawa is the father of Japanese stained glass. He studied in Germany and, in 1899, started a small studio in Japan. Matsumoto joined him in 1930.
Sanchi Ogawa, (1867-1928), studied art in Tokyo and at the Art Institute of Chicago. Between 1904 and 1911 he worked in several U. S. stained glass studios. He returned to Japan in 1911 and founded his own active studio, which continued until his death in 1930. The craft became immensely popular after World War II.
A beautiful Japanese stained glass magazine is published, unfortunately, however, not in English. The Japanese also have imported stained glass: Gabriel Loire has a tower of faceted glass at Hakone Open Air Museum; facade windows in Saint Anselm's Roman Catholic Church in Tokyo are by Willet Studios; the stained glass in the Kyoto Cathedral is by Hans Stocker and Schaffrath's window wall seen in the railroad station in Omiya.

The History of Dalle de Verre

The most successful and most widely accepted new technique in the world of stained glass today is dalle de verre, better known as faceted glass, which is set into epoxy or other material. Its process of production results in a mosaic-like approach of pure color effects that can be utilized in window openings or entire walls.
As John Gilbert Lloyd notes: "It returns to the primary function of stained glass to transform a wall from a solid unyielding object to a cascading, fluid mural of shimmering beauty. While the medieval craftsman, joining small pieces of glass with lead to make intricate designs, achieved the same effect for Gothic cathedrals, the earlier Byzantines transferred their mosaic patterns into colorful window designs. Present day development of the technique stems directly from this beginning.
"Thick colored glass was first used in a decorative way by Byzantine artists, instead of embedding the glass in stone, pierced the walls clear through and set it in as window lights. Arabic type examples can be found in Spain, apparently finding their way from North Africa with the Moslem Invasion. Although the actual glass is no longer in place, the feathery stonework grills that remain definitely indicate they must have been filled with colored glass.
"Both Persians and Saracens in the Eastern Mediterranean area, where the glass industry was born, set crude glass into wood, stucco and stone frames. With these examples the Gothic tribes moving west used similar applications in stone mullions in France during the fifth and sixth centuries. Viollet-le-Duc says in Vitrail, "In the East, things change but little and window screens of stucco and marble enclosing pieces of vari-colored glass which we find in monuments of the XIII or XIV centuries in Asia and even Egypt, must be the expression of a very ancient tradition whose cradle seems to have been Persia." (Stained Glass in America, pp 87-88)
The Islamic law of prohibiting the use of human likenesses being depicted within the mosque, and simultaneously, the Christian practice of encouraging the use of figure likenesses of Christ -- the Apostles, angels and saints -- in all the decorative media of the church may have implemented the change to the thinner leaded glass medium.
The Middle Eastern antecedents of dalle de verre seem to have vanished for several hundreds of years, until the 1920s, when French glass artists, experimenting with various new architectural directions, revitalized the ancient techniques.
Early pioneers in the modern development of dalle de verre include Auguste Labouret and his collaborator Pierre Chaudiere. A prolific artist, Labouret studied at L'Ecole de Beaux Arts under J. P. Laurens and created many windows for cathedrals, railroad terminals, department stores hotels and ships' dining rooms.
Labouret was born in St. Quentin, France and developed the dalle de verre technique in the early 30s while working on glass in historic monuments. The artist sought a combination of modern strength and durability with a depth of color found in old glass. The thickness, broken surface and cut edge gives dalle de verre its characteristically rich translucence. The negative matrix area that frames each pane of glass is visually much heavier than the lead in ordinary windows. This characteristic, as with the earlier Islamic pierced windows, enriches the color by creating a great contrasting brilliance. This juxtaposition of brilliant color and dark surrounds can be painstakingly achieved in flat leaded glass by elaborately painting or by a combination of etching and painting of flashed glass.
Dalle de verre lends itself best to direct and vigorous design. It is a broad medium that, generally, does not encourage copious detail. In the St. Christopher window that Labouret exhibited in the Pavilion du Vitrail in the Paris Exhibition of 1937, he demonstrated that it was not incompatible with figure work, delicate detail and even lettering.
A variety of forms could be seen at this 1937 Paris Exposition with the Egyptian Pavilion showing a typical Arabic style of glass pierced plaster encased windows in traditional patterns. This was supposed to be the real origin of faceted glass.
Variously called beton glass (beton glas), concrete glass or mosaic glass, the renewal started and by 1939 had crossed the Atlantic when a beton glass window was installed in the Chapel at the Shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec, Canada. This was designed and fabricated by Auguste Labouret and is believed to be the first such panel in North America. In the same year, the French pavilion at the New York World's Fair featured the same "Magi" panel that had been completed in 1936.
"One of the Magi" is one of Labouret"s later works (1936), showing a good example of size and contrast of the glass. Note particularly the individual blades of glass set together in undulating rows. This cutting effect could only be achieved by using a hammer. Notice the ornamenting on the garment itself, the flowers, sky and stars, and the glass rods used. Contrasting in size are the larger pieces in the garment and jewel box (note the treatment on the edging of the jewel box). The flesh seems to have been traced and a matted texture effects the shading somewhat differently from the effect in St. Hubert"s work.
The English precis for the French article describing the window, "One Of The Magi", is "This stained glass window, exhibited in L'Illustration, illustrates a revolution which has taken place in the art of fashioning stained glass. It is the work of Labouret, who has evolved a daring new technique in the manipulation of translucent materials. His windows, indeed, carry us far from the traditional method of setting flat pieces of glass in leads in the manner that has been followed for centuries. By the use of thick slabs of glass which he sculptures, M. Labouret obtains a multiplicity of facets about which the lights play with a colour and an intensity which suggest the fire of precious stones. It is impossible to deny the remarkable effects he achieves by means of this new method, and it is easy to imagine the wealth of decoration, which it may, in the future, confer on our churches and cathedrals. The several slabs of glass, it may, perhaps, be added, are held together with cement." [Labouret's earliest work appeared in print in 1930 illustrating the steps of execution of the center section of the St. Hubert window. The complete window appeared in the Christmas, 1936 issue of L'Illustration.] (Stained Glass in America, p. 88)
Also, in the 1937 Egyptian Catalogue from the Paris Exhibition, there is a window, "L'apprenti Sorcier" (Sorcerer's Apprentice) which stands the test of time very well. Figure 10.4. This is by Jean Gaudin and contains 16 panels with vignettes of the story running bottom to top. While there are indications of pate de verre influences, it is a stunning window by any standard. (Pate de verre is a cast sculptured window; all the surface details are sculpted in a mold then the hot glass is poured into it. All the cast pieces are then assembled using cement as a matrix. It is possible that dalle de verre and pate de verre developed simultaneously as they have similar surface treatments.)
It was not until the end of World War II that faceted glass use became more accepted, and even then, it was an evolutionary process. The pent-up demands for new buildings in the United States and Europe after the war proved a fertile ground for the material, which was relatively easy to fabricate, comparatively inexpensive yet produced windows of brilliant color.
But, as Lloyd states, "Not until the completion of Sacred Heart Chapel in Audincourt, France (1951_1955) did the full appreciation of the form strike home. This large installation has been billed as the finest in France with the windows completely dominating the atmosphere. It is a concert in color, rhythm and visual harmony." (Stained Glass in America, p. 89)
By 1950, additional windows had been fabricated and installed by Labouret for the St. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec, Canada. The complete job called for over 200 windows of which he had completed and installed 30.
The work, St. Luke, from the circle window from the Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec, Canada, shows advancement of the dalle de verre concept. The cutting is sharper, giving a crisper look to the window; there is ample use of negative space. The stars in the background seem to have become Labouret's trademark. The small amount of trace-like material used to delineate the nose, mouth, and ear of St. Luke, as represented by a winged ox, are surface treatments which are no longer used in this medium.
As news of these windows spread, it wasn't very long before Henry Lee Willet of Philadelphia, who with several contemporaries, visited St. Anne to view them first hand. Willet remarked: "I was fascinated by the windows being installed; Labouret has developed an entirely new technique. He uses pieces of glass four to six inches thick which are held together by cement instead of lead. I thought the windows were the work of a young artist and commented to a priest at the shrine that it took youth to think of a new approach. When the priest told me that Labouret was 78 years old I realized the windows were even more amazing. Here is a man developing new techniques at an age when most men have retired." Willet was impressed both by the man and the work, so he immediately contacted Labouret and arranged for an exhibition of his work at the Philadelphia Art Alliance for the fall of 1950, which was reported in the December, 1950 Alliance Bulletin. The exhibition included colored renderings, full size cartoons and finished pieces of dalle de verre. It expressed first-hand the media and all its potential to the American stained glass profession.
Lloyd points out that, "American studios cautiously entered the field with a few minor commissions forthcoming. Then came the revolutionary First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, Connecticut. Constructed in a form that resembled a gigantic fish, (although the architect claims this was not done consciously but rather for acoustical effects), it is said to be one of the most powerful modern churches in the world. Great walls of faceted glass designed and executed by Gabriel Loire of France literally saturated the interior with overpowering color. Controversy raged, as might be expected, but it led the way to new concepts and thinking in church design,"
The First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, CT provided the springboard for American studios to abandon traditional taboos and energetically make up for lost time.
The first American studio to design, fabricate, and install dalle de verre was that of Harold W. Cummings of San Francisco, California. The year was 1954 and the location was Belvedere, California for the St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. The media described as Vitrolith by Mr. Cummings was cast in concrete. The installation consisted of 12 nave windows approximately 17 by 144 inches in a vertical design with 72 smaller rectangular openings scattered in a starry-like clerestory.
Roger Darricarrere, a former pupil of Labouret joined Cummings on this project as a specialist familiar with the process. The design throughout is of an abstract nature consisting of soft tints of color accented by powerful bands of rich color. The glass was hammercut as practiced by Labouret with the design boldly approached.
Among early prominent dalle de verre projects is architect Edo Belli"s Moreau Seminary Chapel and Library designed by Father Anthony Lauck of the Notre Dame University Art Department and fabricated by Conrad Schmitt Studios. The monumental window walls admit a virtual lacework of colored light. The deeply recessed glass set in cement resembles a sculptured bas-relief of sparkling jewels.
Father Lauck describes the dalle de verre concept by saying: "Some materials have a more marked character about them than others. Among these is dalle de verre. Not only is it deeply translucent, but it transmits light in clear brilliant colors. The thickness gives more depth and intensity to its color. The unusual means of shaping it by chiseling adds to its character. Hammer cutting fractures the glass in uneven sizes with notched and somewhat jagged edges. Faceting the edges breaks up the surfaces with shell-like ripples and facets, which brings out forcefully the crystalline angular structure of the glass. Each broken facet transmits its own hue, catches a different angle of the sun's rays or the sky's brightness and brings a varied pattern of sparkling light into the window. It is precisely this unique and individual charm of slab glass that appeals to artists, connoisseurs and patrons alike -- and many priests and religions may be ranked among these."
The material used to glaze early dalle de verre was a portland type cement. In order to use this material properly, it was necessary to pour to a thickness of one to two inches on moderate sized panels and to a thicker size on large panels. The pieces of glass used to make a panel ranged from two to six inches in thickness; it called for a thick pour of cement to produce a panel properly. In addition, the weight per panel was considerable. Cement also requires that a wire armature be incorporated into the panel for reinforcement against breaking while the thickness of the pour required that the cement be adequately cured before moving. Curing panels (the process of letting the cement settle and harden properly), required additional wetting of the panels lest the cement dry out too quickly and crack. Finally, considerable clean up was involved once the cement was dry.
Moving a 500-pound panel up six frames of scaffolding for installation required a hearty crew of men and a crane. Proper placement and adhesion was needed to allow the panel to expand and contract within the installation frame to prevent breaking. A proper sash was also essential to receive the panel and the thickness and weight of the panel necessitated that it be a substantial one. It became apparent that portland cement did not have adequate adhesion to the glass and it was not uncommon for the cement and the glass to separate. Water could seep through and around the panel. When the cement was cast several times thicker than the glass, various internal stresses could cause the glass to suffer fractures. There were problems, shortcomings and limitations in using cement. Since it had been used from the beginning, many windows were cast from it, but now some began to seek a better matrix.
The search for a better matrix took some interesting turns. Some studios experimented with additives to various types of portland cement. About then, Sauereisen Acid resistant cement #54 surfaced. Apparently this material was formulated as a coating for surfaces that were exposed to various types of acids. Its use as a dalle de verre matrix was interesting. The cost was relatively low and it was a lot easier to use than the regular portland cement. It cured in 24 hours and was lighter than regular cement. However, it did not have much strength and required a wire armature and larger panels. The recommended thickness of a pour on a moderate sized panel was one inch. It was only available in white and its use with dalle de verre was limited. Then, Robert R. Benes of St. Louis, Missouri, had a better idea.
Epoxy resin was initially formulated to serve as a lining for the oil pipeline divisions of Mobil Oil Company. By coating the inside surface of the pipe with epoxy, any fuels passing through the line received less friction and incurred less heat buildup. This required less force from a pump to move the material. Epoxy was being tried experimentally on many applications. Bob Benes, working with the Jacoby and Frei Studios in St. Louis, formulated a special blend of the material for trial in replacing cement in dalle de verre windows. Several panels were poured of various sizes and thicknesses as directed by Benes. These were subjected to tests for tensile strength, expansion, contraction, warpage, longevity and the like. The subsequent evaluations showed that epoxy was by far superior in all ways to cement. It required less time for preparation, mixing, pouring and cleanup. It required no type of armature. It had a similar rate of expansion and contraction as the glass. When poured to a three-quarter inch thickness, a panel of 12 square feet could be handled by two men with little fear of breaking. It could be seeded with all kinds of aggregate for surface treatment; it cured for handling in twenty-four hours and cured completely in five days. It came in many colors. It was a very durable, strong and waterproof product, with great adhesion to glass.
Epoxy was magic stuff and though the cost per gallon was relatively high, it was just what the craft had been looking for. Epoxy and dalle de verre were joined from that day on. Benes applied for a patent and began formulating and selling this material to American studios. He traveled extensively to demonstrate the proper methods of mixing and using the material. Special formulations were made for special situations and special colors were mixed. If a studio had a problem using cement or another's formulation, Benes always complied when called on for help.
Robert Benes traveled abroad and pioneered the use of dalle de verre set in epoxy to the masters of Europe who had always used cement. There were other formulators who soon began offering their product in competition. Some were terrible, some mediocre, but few were as good as Bob Benes' Benesco.

American Stained Glass After World War II

The depression of the 1930s and 1940s diminished the amount of building and new stained glass in the United States. Because of the shortage of craftspeople and supplies, little activity took place during World War II. These two relatively unproductive periods closely followed each other and resulted in a renewed demand for stained glass when the war was over. Also contributing to this new demand was an influx of books and magazines into the country showing the contemporary European churches.
Architects organized tours abroad to visit the European churches. More Americans than ever before were traveling and taking slides to show the folks back home. It was not difficult to convince Americans that European styles were more up-to-date.
Architects offered clients new designs with stained glass. "Liturgical Renewal" churches adopted a floor plan supposedly derived from the house-church of the early Christians. No rood screen blocked the congregation's view of the chancel. The pulpit, the font and the communion table were equally prominent and accessible. Sometimes the pulpit and lectern were combined into an "ambo." Churches-in-the-round became popular.
Considering stained glass as the handmaid of architecture was bound to result in new forms and techniques. Also, the influential cathedrals with traditional architecture such as Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and the Washington National Cathedral began requesting contemporary designs. Stained glass, like the other arts, was welcomed in the church in new forms. There was an increase of Christian symbols as subjects. These recalled early Christians hiding in the catacombs. Congregations were supposed to be informed enough to interpret these symbols. It was a short step to non-representational designs.
In 1953, the Stained Glass Association of America sponsored the "New Work in Stained Glass" show. Prominent American artists were invited to submit designs that were to be executed by member studios. The success of this project was due to Harold Rambusch who was, first of all, close to the art scene in New York but also believed in the venture more than many of the more conservative members. These controversial panels were shown in several cities and got a fair amount of publicity.
American studios began to make windows in new techniques: etched, sandblasted, laminated, gemmaux, fused, plastic, gold leaf overlay, beveled and the immediately popular dalle de verre.
Dalle de verre windows were first seen on this continent in 1939. They were made in France and installed in Sainte Anne de Beaupre in Canada. Soon after the war, the First Presbyterian Church in Stamford, Connecticut, a church in the shape of a fish, with window walls by Gabriel Loire, was making headlines. American studios began to experiment and were soon in production with faceted glass.
The social changes of the 1960s slowed the church building boom. Christian money was slated for social action rather than new church buildings or for maintaining the traditional ones. The statement "God is dead" was heard. It was time for stained glass to find a home in the secular world again. After the pessimistic "beatniks" came the optimistic "hippies" spreading eastward from San Francisco where they were rehabbing the old houses, painting them bright colors and, of course, repairing the stained glass.
Before this time, the only way to learn to make stained glass was to serve a conventional apprenticeship with an established studio. There were few of these positions available and they were only open for young people who wanted to make stained glass a career within the establishment. To supply the new demand, people who had recently mastered the technique began to teach others and stained glass became a popular hobby. Beginners made "suncatchers" from pattern books. Some progressed to designing and making simple windows and door lights. There was an increase in literature about stained glass, especially glass appreciation. Interest also developed in repair and restoration.
This interest developed not just for medieval windows but also for stained glass from the turn of the century. As the international style of architecture faded into post-modernism, stained glass again became popular, not only in churches, but also in private homes and public buildings. A revival of Tiffany's glass waited until the population as a whole became interested in nostalgia.
This appreciation for the past manifested itself in neo-art nouveau. Art deco, while it experienced a flurry, never came back with such an impact, despite the fact that straight lead lines are easier to make than sinuous lines. Leaded skylights in hotels and railroad stations that had been covered with paint were cleaned and repaired.
Larger repairs and installations were still handled by traditional studios that had better resources and engineering skills. They were increasingly pushed into the new styles and techniques by the competition from smaller studios that had evolved from the hobbyists in stained glass art and craft.
Starting in the 1960s the impetus towards new aspects of stained glass was going on over the whole country, if not the world. Students in colleges and art schools were experimenting with blowing glass in the wake of Dominic Labino and Harvey Littleton, who had developed a new small furnace enabling hot glass to become a medium for individual craftspeople. Interest also awakened in fusing and laminating and that spilled over into stained glass. As colleges and art schools put "hot glass" into their curricula, they also began to teach "flat glass."
Sometimes the two disciplines combined. At this point we saw the entrance of "autonomous panels". Autonomous panels are moderate sized panels designed and made as a statement by a single artist, meant to be treated as fine art and not decorative art, and with no relation to any architectural setting. Principal sources of inspiration are turn of the century stained glass and the work of German artists who traveled to the United States, Canada, Australia and even Japan to teach design workshops.
Stained glass became collectible again. It was also recognized as a prestigious field of scholarship. It had always had its few experts, but a new generation of art history students began to choose it as a major field for research. An organization called the Corpus Vitrearum Medievii was founded in 1952 under the auspices of the Comite International de l'Histoire de l'Art with the plan of researching, documenting and publishing all existing stained glass up through the renaissance -- a gigantic undertaking.
With added support from UNESCO and the Union Academique Internationale, beautifully illustrated volumes on single buildings or geographical areas are appearing. This study makes it easier to learn about medieval windows which have been dispersed to different parts of the world than it is to learn about stained glass much closer to our own time and place. An equally ambitious project is the Census of Stained Glass in America, an attempt to chart every interesting installation in the United States and keep the resulting data in a computer bank.

These two efforts are evidence that stained glass is a serious field of study. It is ironic that interest in medieval windows should build at the height of new styles rather than during the neo-Gothic phase.

The History of Lamps and Lighting

EDISON LAMP - (1879)

Edison's first successful lamp used carbonized cotton thread as a filament, installed in a glass bulb, with all air evacuated. On the afternoon of October 21, 1879, Edison's prototype had lasted 45 hours. The next day Edison began to experiment using cardboard as a filament. The cardboard filament was even more successful, and in a couple of months, production of his lamps had increased. On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1879, Edison gave his first public demonstration of his new invention, at Menlo Park, New Jersey. Special trains were run on the Pennsylvania Railroad to accommodate the masses of visitors. About 100 cardboard filament lamps were used in this demonstration, lighting the streets, the laboratory, and the station at Menlo Park. Each lamp was rated at 16 candlepower and consumed about 100 watts. (Average life was about 100 Hrs.)
In 1880 Edison experimented with other materials for filaments, including wood, grasses, hair and bamboo. Of the over 6000 specimens tested by his laboratory, bamboo, became commonly used for filaments.
In 1880, on January 17, Patent number 223,898 was issued to Edison for the T.A. Edison Electric Lamp.
In 1881, two years after the first incandescent lamp left Edison's workshop, the steamship 'Columbia' was fitted with a thousand of them. Within another two years, there were over 300 electric power stations in existence, feeding over 70,000 incandescent lamps, each with an average life of 100 hours.
See also: [FIRST - ELECTRIC FILAMENT LAMP] - (1874)

SWAN LAMP - (1879)

Along with [EDISON], (and others) Joseph Swan, is also credited with inventing the incandescent lamp. Swan demonstrated a carbon filament lamp to about 700 people in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on February 5, 1879.
Swan's development of the incandescent lamp was reported in the Oct. 29th, 1880 issue of "Engineering", which quotes him as follows: (SWAN) "Electric lighting by incandescence is just as simple as arc lighting is difficult, all that is required is a material which is not a very good conductor of electricity, highly infusible and which can be formed into a wire or lamina, and is neither combustible in air, or if combustible, does not undergo changes in a vacuum".
The first premises to be lighted by the new Swan lamp were those of Sir William Armstrong at Cragside near Newcastle in December 1880.
See also: [FIRST - ELECTRIC FILAMENT LAMP] - (1874)

PHOTOELECTRIC CELL - See: [FIRST - PHOTOCELL] - (1880)

FIRST - PHOTOCELL - (1880)

The first means for converting sunlight directly into electrical energy date back to 1880. In that year the first selenium cells were constructed by Charles Summer Tainter (American) The photoelectric cell, as it called, has been improved in recent years, however the typical output of a single cell is still not be enough to light a small flashlight bulb (lamp). Photo cells are also used in light meters and in other optical measurement equipment.

PHOTOPHONE - (1880)

In 1880, The Photophone was developed by Alexander Graham Bell. This device used a mirror to transmit a speakers voice over a beam of reflected sunlight. The transmitter mirror was modulated by the speakers voice. The receiver used a rod of selenium, a metal whose resistance changes with the intensity of light falling on it. Electricity turned out to be more reliable than sunlight and Bell turned his efforts to the telephone. Bell apparently wanted to name his second daughter after the Photophone as she was born a few days after his first successful demonstration of the device in February 1880. Apparently Mrs. Bell did not share his enthusiasm.
Modern day versions of the Photophone even exist today. From time to time many of the popular electronics magazines provide construction projects for 'light beam communicators'.

LIGHT PIPE - (1880)

In 1880, William Wheeler of Concord, Massachusetts, applied for and received a patent, on light pipes. His idea was to use pipes with reflective inner surfaces to direct light from a source at one end, along the length of the pipe. Concord's prototype was not very efficient and most of the light was absorbed by the mirrors.
The light pipe uses the principal of 'total internal reflectance'. This principal was noted about ten years earlier by John Tyndal, when he shone a light at a spout of water as it gushed out of a tank. The water fell in an arc and the light went with it. The outer edge of the water spout was acting as a mirror, reflecting the light that reached it back toward the interior of the spout. Total internal reflection only works when light strikes the air/water boundary at a small glancing angle. At larger angles the light passes through, the water like transparent glass.
The principal of total internal reflection is used by the modern light pipe and by fiber optics.
See also: [TIR SYSTEMS].
See also: [FIBER OPTICS].

CARTE, RICHARD D'OYLEY - (1881)

Richard D'Oyley (often: D'oyly) Carte, was the enterprising manager of the new Savoy Theatre in London. In 1881 he opened the theatre and advertised that the Savoy was the first public building lighted 'entirely' by electricity. In fact, there were a total of 1158 of the new Swan lamps, used to light the auditorium, the dressing rooms, the corridors and the stage. The electrical and dimmer system was by Siemens Brothers and Company, one of the early pioneers in stage lighting control systems. There were six (6) dimmers in all.
An article published in 'Engineering, March 3, 1882' reported: "In an artistic and scenic point of view nothing could be more completely successful than the present lighting of the Savoy Theatre the illumination is brilliant without being dazzling, and while being slightly whiter than gas, the accusation of "ghastliness," so often urged against the light of the electric arc, can in no way be applied. In addition to this the light is absolutely steady, and thanks to the enterprise of Mr. D'Oyley Carte, it is now possible for the first time in history of the modern theatre to sit for a whole evening and enjoy a dramatic performance in a cool and pure atmosphere".
At the same time, the Grand Opera in Paris installed the Swan lamp.

LANGMUIR, IRVING - (1881 - 1957)

Irving Langmuir (General Electric Research Lab.) pioneered the development of the first gas-filled electric lamp, at atmospheric pressure. He demonstrated that it was not the vacuum in the bulb that allowed the filament to burn for a long time. Instead he showed that by simply adding nitrogen gas, evaporation of the filament was slowed, prolonging the life of the lamp. Later, Langmuir later substituted argon for nitrogen. See also: [GAS FILLED LAMP] - (1913)

TELEVISION, EARLY - (1884)

Some of the earliest work on television began in 1884, when the German engineer Paul Nipkow designed the first true television mechanism. In front of a brightly lit picture, he placed a scanning disk (called a Nipkow disk) with a spiral pattern of holes punched in it. As the disk revolved, the first hole would cross the picture at the top. The second hole would passed across the picture a little lower down, the third hole still, and so on. With each complete revolution of the disk, all parts of the picture would be briefly exposed in turn. The disk revolved quickly, accomplishing the scanning within one fifteenth of a second. Similar disks rotated in the camera and receiver. Light passing through these disks created crude television images.
Nipkow's mechanical scanner was used from 1923 to 1925 in experimental television systems developed in the United States by the inventor Charles F. Jenkins, and in England by the inventor John L. Bard. The pictures were crude but recognizable. The receiver also used a Nipkow disk placed in front of a lamp whose brightness was controlled from the light-sensitive tube behind the disk in the transmitter. In 1926 Baird demonstrated a system that used a 30-hole Nipkow disk.

GAS MANTLE / WELSBACH - (1885)

Some improvement in gas lighting was made over the years by the development of new types of burners. It was not, however until Welsbach introduced the gas mantle in 1885 that gas lighting was greatly improved. A gas mantle is made from a small knitted bag, dipped into chemical and then dried. When a new mantle is tied to a gas jet and the gas is lighted, the knitted material will burn away leaving a fragile shell of chemicals which glow brightly in the heat of the gas flame. Many 'gasoline' type and camper lanterns today still use mantles.
Credit for the first metal filament lamp also goes to Welsbach. He developed a rather efficient lamp with a filament of the rare metal Osmium in 1905. However, this metal was even more rare and expensive than platinum and the lamps were not highly successful.

WESTINGHOUSE - (1886)

Westinghouse was founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. Westinghouse received more than 400 patents for his many inventions, including the air brake (1882) and a method of transmitting electrical power. He also refined the transformer, providing a practical method of distributing A.C. power over a large network. Edison at the time rejected alternating current in favor of direct current.
Westinghouse has grown to be a world wide supplier of electrical components, appliances and lamps. In 1995 Westinghouse purchased CBS for $5 Billion (US), just one day after the Walt Disney Co. announced its purchase of Capital Cities/ABC Inc.

DUBOIS, RAPHAEL - (1887)

Dubois, in 1887 demonstrated the existence of a specific compound he called luciferin, which interacts with an enzyme, luciferase and oxygen to produce light. See also: [BIOLUMINESCENCE].

FINSEN, N.R. - (1889)

It was in 1889 than Niels Ryberg Finsen, a Dane, discovered that the ultraviolet component of natural sunlight, in fact, was responsible for sunburn. Finsen received the Nobel Prize in 1903 (04?) for his pioneering work - which led to widespread study of UV and its effects. Finsen investigated the photo biological effects of sunlight and even had an engineer commissioned to build a large [ELECTRIC ARC] lamp so that he could further experiment with the effects of artificial sunlight for therapeutic purposes. The arc lamp operated at a current of twenty-five amperes and was rich in ultraviolet rays. {1ST SUNLAMP}
See also: [ULTRAVIOLET].
Additional reading: UV Lamps, LDA, June 1980. Additional reading: The Magic of Rays, Johannes Dogigli, 1961

LEONARD, HARRY WARD - (1889)

Inventor, Ward Leonard worked with Thomas [EDISON] to introduce the central station electrical system concept to cities in America. Leonard in 1892 received a patent for an electric elevator.

WILFRED, THOMAS - (1889 - 1968)

Thomas Wilfred, was born in Nestvad, Denmark. Between 1905 and 1911 he studied music and art in Copenhagen, Paris and London - and became a singer of old songs. He began to experiment with color mixing and projection and developed a device called the 'Clavilux' (1919). It consisted of spot and flood lights, rheostats, screens, filters and prisms, all controlled by an elaborate control console.
In 1916 he came to the United States and continued his career as a singer in order to gather funds for his experiments in the use of light as an art medium. Wilfred debuted his Clavilux at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York in 1922. Between 1922-1929 he made tours and gave concerts in the USA and Canada. In 1925 he appeared in Paris, London and Copenhagen. Later he founded the Art Institute of Light in West Nyack, New York. He continued lecturing, creating and writing, until his death in 1968.
See also: [COLOR ORGAN].
Additional Reading: The Art of Light & Color, Tom Jones (1972).

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY - (1892)

Created in 1892 through a merger of Edison's General Electric with Thomson-Houston Electric Co. The Edison name was eliminated because it had lost prestige since an electric chair fiasco two years earlier. Edison still insisted that DC not AC current should be used.
Today, General Electric has grown to be one of the largest suppliers of electrical components, appliances, equipment and machinery, in the world. The company is a major manufacturer of lamps (light bulbs) for all applications. In 1985 General Electric purchased RCA and its National Broadcasting Co. for $6.3 billion US dollars.
http://www.ge.com

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES - (1893)

I.A.T.S.E. (IATSE) - is a professional union with more than 75,000 members in over 500 locals, throughout the United States and Canada. The 'I.A.' serves the technical needs of most professional stage productions, arena shows and films, throughout North America.

ARGON - (1894)

Argon, (Ar), from argon, or inactive, was discovered in 1894 by Scottish chemist William Ramsay, who removes from air, various known gases including nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide and find an inert gas remains. The most abundant of noble gases, argon is used in welding applications, as it provides an inert atmosphere, in which welded metals will not burn. It is also the gas that fills most incandescent lamps.

ROENTGEN, WILHELM - (c 1895)

About 1895, Roentgen (German) discovered X-Rays. These rays could penetrate most forms of solid matter, as ordinary light passes through glass. Today his discovery is used for a number of medical diagnostic and therapeutic uses. Roentgen died in 1894 at the early age of 37.

KLIEGL BROTHERS - (1896)

Kliegl Brothers of New York, was founded in 1896 and was one of the oldest if not 'the oldest' stage lighting manufacturer, established in North America. The company made high quality lighting fixtures and control systems for the stage and studio industries. Unfortunately after a turbulent decade of changes, the company ceased operation in the 1990's.
The company was founded by American lighting experts John H. Kliegl (1869-1959) and Anton Kliegl (1872-1927). Kliegl was the manufacturer of the 'Klieglight, a powerful carbon-arc lamp, producing an intense light, used initially for film lighting. It was first introduced in 1911 and then later, the 'Klieglight' was redesigned for the incandescent lamp.

NEON - (1898)

Neon, (Ne), from neos, or new, was discovered in 1898 and is the best known of the inert gases. When an electric current is passed through a minute amount of neon, enclosed in a glass vacuum tube, it glows bright orange red.
Red neon tubes (for display) were first made by Claud in France in 1910. On January 19, 1915, the first patent was issued for a neon sign. In 1925, blue tubes containing argon and mercury first appeared in central London, and sometime later, a green light was produced (simply by enclosing a blue tube in yellow glass). It wasn't until 1933 that fluorescent power coating of neon and mercury discharge tubes produced a whole new range of colors. Neon lamps have almost an indefinite life.

XENON - (1898)

Xenon, (Xe), (pronounced: Zee-non) - from xenos, or stranger, was discovered in 1898. The properties of an electric discharge arc in an atmosphere of xenon gas under high pressure was investigated by Aldington in 1947, and a few limited but important commercial applications followed. Today, the Xenon lamp is used in the commercial [STROBE] (or stroboscopic or high speed flash), as well as a source for projection equipment and followspots.

RADIUM - (1898)

Radium (Ra), from radius, or ray, was discovered in 1898 by Pierre and Marie Curie. It is the sixth rarest of the elements. Radium bromide is often mixed with zinc sulphide to produce a mixture used for luminous watch dials. The radium gives off dangerous radiation which causes the zinc sulphide to glow.

ELECTRICITY - (1899)

Although many early men experimented with electricity, none knew that electricity was atomic in nature. It was the English physicist Joseph John (later Sir Joseph) Thompson, who finally lifted the veil shrouding the phenomenon of electricity. In 1899, he demonstrated that electrons are the carriers of electricity, and, further that each of them carries an elementary quantum of a negative electric charge.

1900

THE 20TH CENTURY - (1900's)

Although the principals of lighting design had been well established during the oil and gas light eras, it wasn't until the development of the incandescent lamp (c1879), that stage lighting could really flourish as an art form. Now for the first time in history it was possible to provide odorless and controlled lighting. The development of lighting fixtures flourished. The gas; striplight, box flood and footlights were redeveloped using the incandescent lamps.

BOX FLOOD / SCOOP / FLOODLIGHT - (1900's)

The 'Box Flood' is an early type of basic stage lighting fixture. Before the widespread use of electricity and the incandescent lamp, candles, oil lamps and gas were all used for stage lighting. Long ago, some brilliant designer enclosed a typical flame source with a cube type housing, having only one open side. Voila, a significant development in lighting fixture design. First, the enclosure would have shielded the source from the audience, increasing visibility and visual comfort. Second, the enclosure would have acted as a crude reflector, helping to direct additional reflected light out of the front opening (or aperture).
Soon after the development of the incandescent lamp, the gas floodlight fixture would have been redesigned to incorporate this new technology. The electric box flood was the most basic of all stage lighting fixtures, as all that was required was a metal box, a socket, a power cord and a lamp. No lens or mechanical controls were required.
The illustration above shows a modern day floodlight fixture, using an electric filament lamp. This fixture, known as the 'Scoop', evolved from the simple box flood and provides a soft wide wash of light. Today modern fixtures often incorporate special asymmetrical reflectors, to help provide an even distribution of light on a vertical surface (backdrop or cyclorama). Some floodlights are also available in multi-cell designs, incorporating 2, 3 or 4 partitioned lamps, each with a different color filter. Modern floodlights typically come in wattages of 300 - 1000 watts.

LINNEBACH PROJECTOR - (c 1900)

Adolf Linnebach was the technical director of the Munich Opera in the early 1900's. He developed a simple projector for background and scenic projection. The projector did not use a lens. Instead, it simply cast a shadow of a silhouette cutout, placed in front of the shielded, light source. The results was a simple, effective image projection, with a soft focus. (Bentham).
The modern Linnebach projector uses a slide size of 24x24 or 36x48 (inches). KLIEGL BROTHERS lighting, claims to have introduced the Linneback projector to the American market in 1922.

FOOTCANDLE (and LUX) - (a 1900)

It was in the early days of electric lighting that users began to ask how much light they needed. The measurement unit of the footcandle was developed as a measure of 'illumination'.
DEFINITION - footcandle, fc: The unit of illuminance when the foot is taken as the unit of length. It is the illumination on a surface, one square foot in area on which there is a uniformity distributed flux of one lumen, or the illumination produced on a surface all points of which are at a distance of one foot from a directionally uniform point source of one [CANDELA]. (REF: IES Lighting Handbook, Ref. Vol. 1981).
The International (metric) unit of illumination is the 'lux'. It is the illumination produced on a surface one square meter in area at a distance of one meter from a uniform point source.
Lux / Footcandle conversions:

    FC  = LUX x .0929  -   Example 1:  500 LUX x .0929 =  46.5 FC
      LUX =  FC x 10.76  -   Example 2:   50 FC  x 10.76 =  538 LUX

Generally you may multiple FC by 10 to obtain LUX - or, divide LUX by 10 to obtain FC.
The recommended illuminance levels for various activities and tasks are published by the Illuminating Engineering Society. Today we know that it is not just the 'amount' of light that affects visibility. Other factors such as contrast and glare are equally important.
The illumination from the sun on the earth's surface can exceed 100,000 LUX, (or 10,000 FC) during a summer day. At night the reflected light from the moon might be as high as 0.2 LUX, (or .002 FC).

SALTWATER DIMMER - (a 1900)

Soon after the development of the electric filament lamp, applications were immediately found in the theatre for this exciting new invention. New lighting fixtures and methods of control were quickly developed and put into use. One early means of lamp 'dimming' was through the use of the salt water dimmer. The dimmer consisted of a tank (or barrel) of salt water brine with a permanent electrode submerged. As a second electrode was slowly raised (or lowered) into the brine, the conductivity between the two electrodes would increase (or decrease) respectively. Lamps connected in series to the dimmer, would be dimmed accordingly. It was not uncommon for a theatre to have a large number of these dimmers and it is said that the heat from the boiling brine would often help to heat the backstage areas. Undoubtedly messy and difficult to operate and maintain, the electric salt water dimmer was soon to be replaced by the somewhat more efficient (and dryer) electrical resistance dimmer.
See also: RESISTANCE DIMMER, AUTOTRANSFORMER DIMMER, SCR DIMMER.

MCCANDLESS, STANLEY - (c 1900 - 1967)

Stanley McCandless (American) is often regarded as the 'father' of modern stage lighting design. He worked as a teacher, educator and lighting designer, throughout his career. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, "Mac" got his degree in architecture at Harvard. He then worked as an architect for some time and in the late 1920's he opened an office in New York City as an independent lighting consultant. He was the architectural lighting consultant for Radio City Music Hall and many other important projects. With the opening of the Yale School or Drama in the 1920's he was asked to teach stage lighting. He taught at Yale between 1925 and his retirement in 1964.
McCandless wrote two very important books on stage lighting "A method of lighting the Stage" (1st published, 1928), and "A Syllabus of Stage Lighting". McCandless provided a 'method' of lighting that is still the foundation of modern lighting methods today. He taught visibility of the actor first, and illumination of the surrounding scenery, second. He proposed a system of dividing a typical (proscenium) stage in to 'acting areas'. Each area was lighted with two fixtures - placed at 90 degrees to each other, and in a 45 degree frontal position to the actor. For additional interest, McCandless recommended a 'warm' color from one side and a 'cool' color from the other.
McCandless was also the holder of numerous patents in the architectural lighting field. He consulted on some of the largest and most important projects at the time in the American nation. He taught many lighting professionals in the field and lectured and wrote extensively in architectural and illumination publications.

RAMBUSH, HAROLD W. - (c 1900 - 1981)

Harold Rambush was the interior designer of many American and Canadian cathedrals and church interiors, (over 500) as well as the decorator of numerous American theatres, including the Roxy and Radio City Music Hall. He also served as the director of the Rambusch Company, a leading American manufacturer of church lighting fixtures, founded by his father in 1898.

MIELZINER, JO - (1901 - 1976)

Jo Mielziner designed sets and lighting for more than 300 productions. He designed his first Broadway play in 1924 and was active in the theatre until his death in 1976. Among his most famous Broadway productions were "Carousel", "Annie Get Your Gun", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Death of a Salesman", "The King and I", "South Pacific", "Look Homeward Angel" and "Gypsy". (BW)
Additional Reading: Theatre Design & Technology, May 1969

HIGH INTENSITY DISCHARGE (HID) LAMP - (1901)

High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps and lighting have been in use since the early days of the 20th Century, as an alternative to the electric filament lamp. The first HID lamp introduced was the mercury lamp in 1901. Later, low pressure sodium, high pressure sodium and metal halide lamps, were developed. All of these sources consist of electric arcs, operating in a gaseous environment, sealed within a glass tube or bulb. HID light sources are all more efficient than the electric filament lamp, however they also have limited color rendering abilities, due to their 'line' spectrum (not continuous spectrum). Many HID lamps are now also provided with a phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb. This coating causes additional secondary emissions of visual radiation, providing a wider 'spectrum' of light and color. Typical applications include industrial, commercial and architectural lighting.
See also: [METAL HALIDE LAMP], [MERCURY-VAPOR LAMP], [SODIUM LAMP]

MERCURY-VAPOR LAMP - (1901)

The first practical mercury-vapor lamp was the Cooper-Hewitt lamp developed by Peter Cooper Hewitt in 1901. This was a tubular source about 4 feet long which produced light that was distinctly bluish green in color. The first high pressure mercury lamps similar to the ones used today, were introduced in 1934 in the 400 watt size. Today, mercury lamps now available, range in size from 40 watts to 1000 watts. Mercury lamps produce approximately 55-60 lumens per watt.
Operation: the arc tube of the mercury lamp has argon gas and a little pearl of mercury as filling ingredients. It's electrodes are made of tungsten and carry an emitter paste, e.g. a barium-yttrium compound, that reduces the ignition voltage required to start the lamp. Within three to five minutes after ignition, the mercury is completely vaporized and the characteristic blue-green spectrum of the mercury discharge is emitted. It contains strong ultraviolet radiation at wavelengths of 254 nm and 365 nm. Radiation in the red area of the spectrum is virtually negligible. A mercury lamp's color temperature ranges between 4000K and 4500K, while its color rendering index (CRI) is only approximately 20, for a clear bulb. Applying phosphor coatings to the outer bulb increases the light output by 10 to 15 percent and improves the CRI to approximately 50.

ALBERT EINSTEIN - 1905

THE SPEED OF LIGHT - In 1905 Einstein postulated that nothing in the universe travels faster than the speed of light and he put forward his Special Theory of Relatively. Although many scientists have tried to test his theory, none have proven him wrong. In the vacuum of space, light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second. This gave rise to a special T-shirt design worn at such places as MIT and Caltec:
186,000 MILES PER SECOND
IT'S NOT JUST A GOOD IDEA
IT'S THE LAW!

LIGHTYEAR

The lightyear is an astronomical measurement used to measure distance, not time. There are approximately 31.5 million seconds in a year. This means that light can travel a distance of 5.60 trillion miles in one year. The metric light year is approximately 9.5 trillion kilometers. The Milky Way is approximately 100,000 lightyears in diameter.

ILLUMINATING ENGINEERING SOCIETY - (1906)

I.E.S. (IESNA/IES) - The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. The I.E.S. was formed in 1906 and has approximately 10,000 members world wide. Its membership includes; lighting consultants, engineers, architects, users, educators, equipment sellers and others, dedicated to the areas of lighting and illumination. Through its activities in research in all phases of lighting application, it has achieved recognition as the authority for recommended illumination practices in North America. The I.E.S. also makes available a great many lighting related publications. The society is located at 345 East 47 Street, New York, NW, 10017 (212) 705-7926.
Honorary IES membership was presented to Thomas Alva Edison on February 10, 1916 at the Hotel Biltmore in New York City.

INVENTION OF THE VACUUM TUBE - (1906)

In 1906, the American engineer, Lee De Forest, patented the triode vacuum tube. By 1920 the tube had been improve to the point where it could be used to amplify electric currents for television.

TUNGSTEN FILAMENT LAMP - (1907)

Prior to 1880 all filaments were either carbonized paper or cotton thread. From 1880 to 1894 bamboo was the usual filament material. In the 1888-1890 period, the squirted cellulose filament appeared. The tantalum lamp was introduced in 1908 and the first tungsten filament lamps were used about 1907-1910.
The first electric lamps using tungsten filaments first appeared in America in 1907, and were made in wattages up to 500 watts. The filaments were extremely fragile however.
The ductile tungsten filament was developed about 1911 by William D. Coolidge, (General Electric, Research Laboratory). This resulted in a much more durable and rugged lamp design. Tungsten has a melting point of 3370 degrees C. (Visible light is produced when a filament reaches 572 degrees Fahrenheit - 'DuroTest').
Additional Reading: LDA, July, 1980, file

ROSCO LABORATORIES - (1910)

Rosco manufacturers and supplies a wide range of products for the entertainment industry and has offices in New York, Hollywood, Toronto, London, Madrid and Sydney. Products include 'Roscolux' brand lighting filters, stainless steel projection templates (gobos), scenic paints, fabrics, plastics, projections screens, flooring, software and many other unique items.
"In 1915, the Rosco swatchbook had three blues: Medium Blue, Dark Blue and Green Blue. By the 1930's the range had expanded to six blues, including Daylight Blue, Pale Blue and No Color Blue". Rosco began producing color in 1910. (REF: quote, Rosco advertisements, Theatre Crafts, Feb/1989, pg 4).
See also: [ROSCOLUX].
Rosco Laboratories 30 Bush Avenue
Port Chester, NY, 10573, USA
Fax: 914-937-5984 (New York)
800-ROSCONY (New York)
800-ROSCOLA (Hollywood)
WWW/: http://www.rosco.com.

RESISTANCE DIMMER - (a 1910)

One of the earliest electrical dimmers put to use in the theatre (after the [SALTWATER DIMMER]) was the 'resistance dimmer'. The resistance dimmer was simply a long length of wire, usually wound in the form of a coil. A 'wiper' contact would move along the coil, usually controlled by a manual leaver (or motor control). As the contact moved along the coil, the coil resistance would decreasing or increase accordingly. This coil resistance was placed in series with one or more electrical filament lamps to provide a relatively efficient means of dimming.
Stage lighting switchboards were large and heavy. Many used an elaborate system of sub-switches and interlocking control levers. Master leavers were often provided to allow a single operator to raise or lower the control handles of a number of dimmers, all at the same time. It usually required considerable skill to achieve a smooth fade.

KELLY, RICHARD - (1910 - 1977)

Richard Kelly was an American, architectural lightning designer and consultant, with a vast number of projects credits. He also did extensive work with day lighting. He was familiar with the destructive characteristics of light (UV) and provided the lighting for a number of leading art galleries and museums.

BAY, HOWARD - (1912 - 1986)

Howard Bay has designed the sets and lighting for over 170 Broadway shows. He had designed fifty-seven Broadway productions by the time he was thirty-six. Among his credits are "Man of La Mancha", "Music Man", and "Show Boat". His Broadway career began in 1933 with 'There's a Moon Tonight'. His first designs for a musical were for 'Count Me In'.) His book, "Stage Design" is one of the most popular textbooks of its type.
Additional reading: Theatre Design and Technology, December 1969.

ROSENTHAL, JEAN - (1912 - 1968)

Jean Rosenthal born, N.Y.C. Studied at Yale with Stanley McCandless (c. 1932), and later went on to become one of the leading lighting designers on Broadway and in modern theatre. She was a pioneer in the art and craft of lighting design. Over her 30 year career, she is said to have designed over 400 productions, including plays, musicals, opera and ballet. Among her best known Broadway shows were "West Side Story", "Plaza Suite", "Becket", "Hello Dolly", "Hamlet" (with Richard Burton", "The Odd Couple", "Cabaret", "The Sound of Music" and "Fiddler on the Roof". Her well known book; "The Magic of Light", is published by Little, Brown and Company in association with Theater Arts Books.

COOLIDGE, WILLIAM DAVID - (1913)

Coolidge was a General Electric research worker who in 1913 received a patent for "tungsten and method for making same for use as filaments of incandescent electric lamps". Tungsten will now replace carbon filaments in the manufacture of Edison and Swan lamps

GAS FILLED LAMP - (1913)

Up to this time, all lamp filaments operated in a high vacuum. After the introduction of the tungsten filament, by [COOLIDGE] the next highly significant step in the development of the incandescent lamp, came in 1913 when [LANGMUIR] (G.E. Research Lab.) made the first gas-filled lamp, at atmospheric pressure. He found that the higher pressure did reduced evaporation of the tungsten, but so much heat was conducted away by the gas that the lamp efficiency was reduced. He discovered that coiling the filament reduced the effective area exposed to the gas and thus minimized the loss of heat. Coiled filament gas-filled lamps in 500, 750 and 1000 watt sizes were introduced in 1913. They gave a much better light at higher efficiency with the same life as former lamps. Nitrogen gas was used in the first lamps but argon was substituted in 1914. Argon has lower heat conductivity than nitrogen. These lamps could be made smaller than carbon lamps and produced three times the light per watt.
Now the development of advanced lighting fixtures and projectors, using lenses, was possible. See also: [IRVING LANGMUIR] (1881 - 1957).

HUB ELECTRIC COMPANY INC - (c 1915)

Hub was a large American manufacturer of theatre lighting products, located in Illinois. The company was active in educational theatre and provided a wide range of dimming products and design services.

MAJOR CONTROLS - (1916)

'Major' was formed in 1916 and is one of the oldest manufacturers of theatre lighting systems.
Major Controls,
740 Industrial Drive,
Cary, Illinois, 60013, USA
Tel: (312) 639-8200.

STRAND ELECTRIC COMPANY - (1917)

STRAND LIGHTING

The Strand Electric Company was established in 1917 in London, to serve the needs of the London theatre district. Strand Lighting Canada began operations in 1958. In 1969 the Rank Organization acquired both Strand Lighting and the American company of Century Lighting and consolidated them as Strand Century. Rank combined all of its Strand Century Companies into one international group under the Strand Lighting name in August 1985. In 1986 Rank acquired Electro Controls (Controls Lighting) of Salt Lake City, Utah and Calgary and Quartzcolor Ianiro SPA of Rome. In the fall of 1996 Schroder Ventures purchased the Strand Lighting International Group of companies from Rank. Today 'Strand', with offices around the world, manufacturers one of the most comprehensive ranges of lighting fixtures, dimming and control equipment for theatre and television, in the industry.
See also: [CENTURY LIGHTING]
Strand Lighting
18111 South Santa Fe Avenue
Rancho Dominguea, CA, 90221, USA
310-637-7500
800-733-0564
WWW: http://www.strandlight.com
See also: [CENTURY LIGHTING].

ADB LIGHTING - (1920)

ADB is a large European lighting company currently based in Belgian. The company was founded by Adrien De Backer in 1920 and started as manufacturers of electrical equipment including rheostats.As eqrly as 1925 ADB had developed rheostats to control the lighting for stages, music halls and movie theatres. Today the company manufactures a wide range of luminaires, accessories, dimming and controls, for the theatre and television markets. ADB has been a 'Siemens' company since 1987.

STRIPLIGHT / COMPARTMENT BATTEN - (1920's)

The striplight (compartment batten, in Britain) is a stage lighting fixture, designed to provide a linear 'wash' of light. In addition to being used for the lighting of scenery, striplights are also useful for the lighting of cycloramas and backdrops. Early striplights would have used candles, oil or gas and would have been most unpractical to handle and difficult to control.
In England, the compartment batten was made popular by Adrian Samoiloff who used many for his color lighting stunts, which hit the headlines in the early 1920's. Prior to the compartment batten, color was obtained by dipping the individual lamps in lacquer.
Today, the modern striplight is 6 to 10 feet in length and, wired in 3 or 4 circuits. Usually lamps of 100 - 500 watts are used behind plastic or glass filters. Sometimes the primary colors of light, red, green and blue are used. When the colors are 'mixed' together with dimmers, a wide range of dramatic colors may be attained. Often striplights will be used to illuminate large sky cloths. They are usually placed end to end, above the cloth, running from one side of the stage to the other. Additional striplights are often also placed on the floor, parallel to the cloth. The floor strips can provide an assortment of horizon lighting including sunrise and sunset effects.

FIRST - FRESNEL LENS SPOTLIGHT - (c 1920)

The modern fresnel spotlight is one of the most basic tools used by lighting designers for spot-lighting applications. The fresnel spotlight, in its simplest form consists of a housing, a light source and a 'fresnel' lens. When the source is moved slightly towards (or away) from the lens, the size of the light beam changes, from spot focus to flood focus. Early fresnel type lighting fixtures would have included, gas, oil, electric arc and other sources, and were commonly used as lighthouse type fixtures, able to project a narrow concentrated beam, a great distance.
The modern fresnel lighting fixture uses either a tungsten halogen or a discharge type of lamp. Fresnel fixtures are available in lens diameters of 3 inches to 36 inches or more. The typical stage and studio fresnel has a lens diameter of 6, 8 or 10 inches.
Today, the fresnel with its adjustable beam size is invaluable for area lighting and color wash applications. The fresnel fixture produces a 'round' beam with an intense 'hot' center and a 'soft', yet defined edge. Fresnel fixtures come in wattages of 150 to 10,000 watts and have adjustable beam spreads of from 10 to 60 degrees.
The fresnel lens and the early fresnel fixture was developed by and named for, [AUGUSTIN JEAN FRESNEL], (1788 - 1827).
[KLIEGL BROTHERS] (in a 1969 catalog) claims the incorporation of a fresnel lens into a theatrical lighting fixture, in 1929.

LEVE, CHARLES - (1922 - 1985)

Charles Leve was a graduate of Yale University Drama School and later went on to be the director of development of lighting, for Strand Century, a position he held for 34 years, since 1951. Leve was also the designer of the Light Palette, a computerized lighting control system that did much to revolutionize theatre lighting of Broadway shows. Prior to his death Leve also had worked with Colortran Inc. and Four Star Stage Lighting.

SCHWABE - (1923)

Schwabe (Germany) was a leader in the development of early stage lighting fixtures (not dimmers and control). The firm of 'Reiche and Vogel' is a descendent of the Schwabe Company. Schwabe made a number of theatre lighting installations in London, as early as 1923. (St. Martin's Theatre).

REICHE AND VOGEL - (1923)

- see: SCHWABE

NIETHAMMER, EMIL - (c 1924)

Emil Niethammer, founded about 1924, is a large manufacturer of high quality stage and studio lighting fixtures. The company is located in Stuttgart, West Germany and was purchased by [AVAB] in the late 1980's. All fixtures are designed and manufactured to a very high standard, and optical performance is among the best in the world.

STROBOSCOPE (ELECTRONIC STROBE) - (c 1926)

EARLY STROBOSCOPE
The stroboscope is a device for viewing a rotating object by making the object appear to be at rest. In its simplest form, it consists of a rotating disk with one or more viewing slits, through which the object can be viewed. The observer looks through the viewing slit and sees the object in exactly the same position each time the slit passes the observers eye. The disk must be rotated in precise synchronization with the object. If the disk is rotated slightly slower than the object, the object will appear to be moving slowly in the direction of its actual motion. If the disk is turning faster that the moving object, then the object will appear to move slowly in the direction opposite to its actual motion.
The stroboscope is of great use in engineering studies of moving parts, as they can actually 'freeze' and view the image in real time.
ELECTRIC STROBOSCOPE
Modern stroboscopes no longer use the rotating wheel with slits. Instead electric lamps are utilized that produce short flashes of light at the same rate that the object is revolving. The high speed gas discharge lamp, stroboscope was developed by Harold Eugene Edgerton and his associates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology around 1926 to 1931. Today, [NEON] lamps are also commonly used for low power stroboscopic applications, producing a flash rate synchronized with a 50/60 cycle frequency, of the standard A.C. (alternating current) power line.
ENTERTAINMENT APPLICATIONS
On a darkened stage in a theatre, a single flashing light source can provide a very striking and dynamic - stop action effect, of all moving objects on stage.
During the mid-1900's, a device known as the 'lobsterscope' was developed for theatre and stage applications. The device consisted of a spinning disk with apertures to mechanically 'chop' the beam of light produced from an incandescent spotlight. This produced a rapid flickering light, able to 'freeze' the action on stage.
During the 1960's the [XENON] 'Strobe' was frequently used for discotheque lighting applications. Designers tried to build the 'ultimate' strobe and units continued to became larger, brighter and more sophisticated. Often several powerful strobe units would be used in a single stage production, with control systems developed to synchronize their firing from a number of inputs (audio beat, keyboard, programmer, etc.)
Today strobe technology in the entertainment industry is stronger than ever. Large productions might incorporate 50-100 or more units, usually mounted in banks of several fixtures each.

FIRST - PUBLIC TELEVISION - (1926)

On January 27, 1926, the first public demonstration of television was given. The first commercial color TV broadcast was presented by CBS on June 25, 1951.

CENTURY LIGHTING - (1926)

Century Lighting opened for business in New York in 1926. The company later was purchased by [STRAND ELECTRIC] to become 'Century Strand', then 'Strand Century' then finally [STRAND LIGHTING], in the 1990's. 'Century Lighting' (USA) made many fine lighting products, including fixtures, dimmers and accessories for stage and television lighting. Century also produced the well known 'leko', (ellipsoidal reflector spotlight), in a number of different sizes and wattages.
The company was founded by Ed Kook and Joseph [LEVE].

MOLE-RICHARDSON CO. - (c 1927)

Established about 1927, Mole Richardson is one of the leading manufacturers in the world of motion picture, television and professional photographic lighting. They manufacturer an extensive range of lighting fixtures and related accessories and are located in Hollywood California, USA.
Mole-Richardson
937 North Sycamore Avenue
Hollywood CA, 90038-2384, USA
Tel: (213) 851-0111
Fax: (213) 851-5593

SKELTON, THOMAS R. - (1928 - 1994)

Tom Skelton, was an well known American stage lighting designer. He died, August 10, 1991. at the age of 66. "The late Tom Skelton was an artist truly revered in the entertainment industry. He began his lighting career as an apprentice to Jean Rosenthal. He went on to inspire other great designers including Jennifer Tipton and Paul Gallo. Skelton was a brilliant lighting designer and innovated color techniques for both theatre and dance. He designed for the Jeffrey, New York City, Paul Taylor, Jose Limon and the Ohio Ballet, which he co-founded. His Broadway credits include "A Few Good Men", "Peter Pan", "Oklahoma", "Brigadoon", "The King and I", "Carousel", and the revivals of "The Iceman Cometh", and "Death of a Salesman". He received 3 Tony nominations, the Carbonelle Award. and the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Award during his career." (REF: quote from, Rosco, Pattern Catalog, 1996).

CLEMANCON - (1928)

The French firm of Clemoncon, was founded in Paris in 1928, and has a long record in the manufacturing of stage lighting equipment.

UNION CONNECTOR CO., INC. - (1929)

In 1929, the Union Connector Company was founded by William J. Wolpert, as a manufacturer of stage lighting connectors. Today, the company makes a large variety of high quality electrical connectors for the stage, motion picture and television industries.
Union Connector Co., Inc.
300 Babylon Turnpike
Roosevelt, New York, 11575, USA
Tel: (616) 623-7461
Fax: (616) 623-7475

PANI, LUDWIG - (1930)

The Viennese firm of Ludwig Pani, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of projection and lighting equipment. The firm was formed in 1930 as a division of the optics firm: 'Optischen Werke C. Reichert, Wien'. Herr Pani who headed the projection division of the parent company, gave his name to the new firm. Pani manufacturer a number of different high powered, optical projectors, accessories and lenses. Pani has several models including a 2000 and 5000 watt incandescent model and a super bright 4000 watt HMI model. These projectors are suitable for large scale scenic projection, for opera and other large scale projections including outdoor architectural and building projection, at night. Pani projectors are very expensive, but very impressive. In the USA, the firm is represented by Production Arts, (New York City, USA).

FLASHBULB - (1930)

The photographic flashbulb was patented by a German inventor, Johannes Ostermeir. A small filament in the 'flash lamp' heated to ignite foil inside the bulb, providing a bright, smokeless, flash of light. This provided a much safer and more practical means of photographic illumination than did previous methods using flash powder.

TIMES SQUARE CORP. - (a 1930)

TIMES SQUARE THEATRICAL AND STUDIO SUPPLY CORP. was established around 1930 in New York City. Since its inception, the company has grown to be a leading supplier lighting equipment and accessories to the stage, studio and entertainment industries, around the world.
Times Square Lighting,
Industrial Park, Route 9W.
Stony Point, N.Y., 10980, USA,
Tel: (914) 947-3034,
Fax: (914) 947-3037

COMMISSION INTERNATIONAL DE L'ECLAIRAGE, (CIE) - (1931)

C.I.E. (CIE) - The International Commission on Illumination, in 1931, adapted a set of tables to define the color matching characteristics or a standard observer and establish a framework for the specification of colors. This was the trichromatic system of color measurement. The recommendations were for pure spectrum colors and were based on a number of research programs which dated from at least as early as MAXWELL'S work in 1854, and continued by other researchers until 1931.
Additional reading: Measurement of Color, W.D. Write, 1964, Hilger & Watts Ltd., London.

LAND, EDWIN HERBERT

- See: [POLAROID FILTER], [POLAROID CAMERA]

POLAROID FILTER - (1932)

The principals of polarized light have been known for many years, having been discovered by [HUYGENS] in 1678. It was the American inventor Edwin Herbert Land however who in 1932 invented a material to conveniently produce polarized light from ordinary light. The light gray glass or plastic filters are relatively inexpensive, and only pass light waves vibrating in one direction. The filter material is now known by the trademark 'Polaroid'.
Today, there are several modern uses of polarized light. Glare from the sun (or other source) reflecting off of a shiny surface will often reflect polarized light. If the glare is viewed through a polarization filter, the glare will disappear and reappear, as the filter is slowly rotated around a central axis. This is the exact principal used in polarized sunglasses. The orientation of the filter tends to block any reflected polarized glare, that is not on axis with the filter. 'Polaroid' sunglasses were introduced by Land-Wheelwright Laboratories in 1936. The following year the company changed its name to the Polaroid Corp.
Polarized light also has several spectacular visual properties associated with it. For example many crystals and plastics produce impressive and dramatic colors when illuminated with and viewed under polarized light. This principal is used in the study of stress in engineering structures. A scale model (of a bridge for example) will be constructed from clear plastic. The model will be illuminated with polarized light and viewed through a polarized filter. Any loads or stresses placed on the scale model will immediately produce dynamic color effects, showing stress lines throughout the structure. The crumpled plastic from a cigarette package and two small polarized filters can demonstrate this colorful experience.
In the 1960's and early 1970's many 'light shows' made and projected slides, made from crumpled and scrunched pieces of clear plastic sandwiched with a polarized filter. When projected from a source with a polarized filter on the lens, the image would become alive with color. When the filter at the lens was rotated the images would swirl, flicker and dance in a psychedelic display of color.
See also : [POLARIZATION/POLARIZED LIGHT]

SODIUM LAMP - (LOW PRESSURE) - (1932)

L.P.S. (LPS) - Research into low pressure sodium gas discharge lamps started in the 1920's. The first commercial application was a road lighting installation that was put into service between Beek and Geleen in the south of the Netherlands on July 1, 1932. The installation employed low pressure sodium lamps with a lumen efficacy 40 lumens per watt. In the same year, the Purley Way in London was also lit by low pressure sodium lamps. Today, the modern low pressure sodium lamp, is considered to be the most efficient lamp available, providing more than 220 lumens per watt. Low pressure sodium lamps can be recognized from their deep amber color.
Additional Reading: LDA, June 1983, Low pressure sodium lighting, the past, present and future - (file)
See also: SODIUM LAMP - (HIGH PRESSURE)

ELLIPSOIDAL REFLECTOR SPOTLIGHT - (1933)

Although not completely certain, the invention of the modern ellipsoidal reflector spotlight often goes to [KLIEGL BROTHERS] (USA). In 1933, the first KLIEGLIGHT, was used in the spectacular outdoor pageant "Romance of the People", at the Polo Grounds in New York. Its first indoor use was in the Earl Carrol Vanities of the same year. Century Lighting (USA) produced a similar fixture in the same year known as the [LEKOLITE].
Today, the ellipsoidal reflector spotlight is still one of the basic tools of the stage lighting designer for spot-lighting applications. The 'ER' as it is often known, is also used to a lesser extent in modern television and film lighting applications. In Britain the 'ER' is referred to as a 'profile spotlight' or a 'mirror spot'.
In its simplest form, the ER fixture consists of a housing, a light source, an ellipsoidal reflector and a plano convex lens. The light beam produced by an ER fixture is round (or 'conical') with a sharp defined cut-off edge. The fixture is actually a simple projection device and will optically project the image of anything placed at its focal point. The typical ER fixture has 4 integral framing shutters or an iris - to provided limited beam shaping. In addition, and of particular importance the ER fixture will also accept and project the design of a metal pattern, commonly known as a template or gobo. There are hundreds of different stock patterns and designs available from various manufacturers.
The typical ER spotlight uses a tungsten halogen type of lamp. Fixtures are available in lens diameters from about 4" to 10" and with wattages from 500 to 2000 watts. The typical stage and studio ER fixture has a lens diameter of 6 inches and a 1000 Watt lamp.
The ER spotlight is selected by beam spread. Fixed beam spreads are available as follows: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50 degrees. Formerly in North America (1950's-1980's) beam spread was designated by specifying first the diameter and then the focal length of the lens. Example: a 6x9 (pronounced 6 by 9) was a fixture with a 6" diameter lens and a 9" focal length. In order to determine the spread in degrees of any particular fixture, the designer still needed to consult the manufacturers data sheet as the designation did not accurately identify the beam spread of the fixture. Today spotlights are specified in 'degrees' only. The following table shows approximate beam spread of several common ER spotlight fixtures:

• 6x9 - 40 degrees
• 6x12 - 30 degrees
• 6x16 - 25 degrees
• 6x22 - 15 degrees
• 8x9 - 20 degrees
• 8x13 - 13 degrees
• 10x20 - 15 degrees

'LEKO' (also LEKOLITE) - (1933)

About the same time that [KLIEGL BROTHERS] developed the first ellipsoidal reflector spotlight, [CENTURY LIGHTING] also developed a similar type of lighting fixture known as the [LEKO] or [LEKOLIGHT].
Joseph [LEVE] and Edward F. Kook were founders of Century Lighting and in 1933 they filed a patent for a new type of reflector spotlight. Each gave one half of their names LE and KO to their joint development. The 'leko' used an ellipsoidal reflector with beam shaping controls (shutters & templates). The leko is still manufactured today by [STRAND LIGHTING], however it has gone through many improvements over the years. Although the term 'Lekolite' is often used to generically refer to any type of ellipsoidal reflector, lighting fixture, the name is now owned by Strand and Strand alone, has the right to use the name.
See also: [ELLIPSOIDAL REFLECTOR SPOTLIGHT]

GOBO/TEMPLATE - (a 1933)

The development of the modern [ELLIPSOIDAL REFLECTOR SPOTLIGHT] (1933), provided an effective acting area type of fixture. It also provided, however, a 'crude' but effective method of image projection.
Typically a pattern is cut or etched into a thin metal plate. When the plate is inserted into a slot, at the focal point of the fixture, an image of the pattern is projected. As the pattern or template was 'to go between' the lamp and the lens - it is was nicknamed: 'gobo'.
The use of template projection is a very valuable tool for the modern lighting designer. Many designers use gobos to provide 'texture' to acting area lighting. Other designers use gobos to provide interesting floor patterns, or to texture the scenery. The image may often be slightly softened, by placing the lens out of focus. Alternately a sharp image may be produced, by 'hard' focusing the lens. Focus may sometimes be made even sharper by the addition of a 'donut' in the color frame. Typically a donut for a 6" ellipsoidal reflector spotlight consists of a 7.5" x 7.5" foil mask, with a 2-3 inch hole, punched in the center. Although the image will be sharpened, by the use of the donut, some intensity, will also be lost.
Several companies produce 'stock' pattern designs precision etched in stainless steel. Both the [GREAT AMERICAN MARKET] and [ROSCO] produce hundreds of unique designs in several different sizes. It is also possible to custom etch your own projection templates using brass shim stock and an etchent of potassium ferra-chloride.

AUTOTRANSFORMER (DIMMER) - (c 1933)

The first autotransformer was developed and patented about 1933 by General Radio Company (USA). This device was a continuously variable transformer with the trade name of "Variac". The Variac provided a much more efficient means of dimming electric lighting fixtures in theatres, than did the existing resistance and saltwater dimmers of the time.
In the 1960's, the American Superior Electric Company, produced a number of autotransformer dimming systems for theatre and television applications. These products had the trade name 'Luxtrol' or 'Powerstat' and were used extensively across Canada and the United States. Portable systems of 6 or 12 dimmers in a single (heavy) metal enclosure were common. Each dimmer had a handle to provide direct and individual control. When the operator 'rotated' a dimmer handle, it would interlock to a 'master' handle to facilitate the fade-up or fade-down of all selected dimmers at once. Some theatre installations remained in operation in North America well into the 1970's. Now all modern theatre dimming systems employ the [SILICON CONTROLLED RECTIFIER] dimmer.
Autotransformers can also be motorized for remote operation. The autotransformer dimmer is still used today in some applications (recording studios & hospitals) as they do not generate radio frequency interference (RFI) as does a modern SCR type dimmer.
See also: [SALTWATER DIMMER], [RESISTANCE DIMMER], [SCR DIMMER].

FLUORESCENT LAMP - (1937)

The fluorescent lamp was first introduced to the public at the New York World's Fair in the late thirties (1937). The lamps were introduced commercially in about 1938. The fluorescent lamp is a low pressure gas discharge source, in which the light is produced predominantly by fluorescent powders activated by ultraviolet energy generated by a mercury arc. Typically, a fluorescent lamp must efficiently generate 253.7 millimicron ultraviolet radiation to excite the phosphors coating the inside of the tubular glass bulb.
The lamp is usually in the form of a long tubular bulb with an electrode sealed at each end. The modern fluorescent lamp has an efficacy of approximately 65-80 lumens per watt. Today fluorescent lamps are also available in circular and 'folded' shapes. Lamps with various different color temperatures and color rendering properties are commonly available. The most common fluorescent lamp is the CW or cool white version, although new 'warmer' versions are now gaining popularity, worldwide. All fluorescent lamps require a ballast, for operation.
Developed in the late 1980's the compact fluorescent lamp revolutionized the lighting industry. This lamp (also referred to as the PL lamp), is simply a folded fluorescent tube, sometimes no larger than a standard 'light bulb'. The ballast is usually mounted in the base pf the lamp. This new lamp allows most household incandescent lamps to be replaced with these new energy saving fluorescent lamps. In addition to retrofit applications, new 'pot light' fixtures have been developed specifically for the PL lamps, for residential, commercial and industrial lighting applications. PL lamps are available in various wattages from approximately 9 - 50 watts, and are available from all major lamp manufacturers.

PAR LAMP (SEALED BEAM LAMP) - (a 1940)

The PARABOLIC ALUMINIZED REFLECTOR (or PAR lamp) is a sealed beam type of lamp, similar to an automotive headlamp. The filament, reflector and lens are all optically aligned at the factory, and sealed into a single lamp - resulting in a highly efficient source. As the PAR lamp is a complete lighting unit, fixtures for them are very simple indeed. Today, PAR lamps are available in various diameters (4.5" to 8"), and various wattages (75-1000 w.) The highly efficient PAR64 lamp (8' lens) is extensively used by the theatre and entertainment industry and the fixtures are often referred to as 'PAR cans'.
The PAR lamp is also sometimes known in Europe as the 'pressed glass reflector lamp'.
There are some historical pictures showing one of the inventors, Dick Thayer, with prototype lamps made from "Pyrex" custard cups purchased from the local hardware store. That was in 1937. The first sealed beam automotive headlamps appeared on the 1940 model cars.
The author's research has also uncovered an early patent drawing of a sealed beam lamp dated Feb. 21, 1939. The drawing is numbered 2,148,314 and is signed Daniel K. Wright, Inventor. The lamp looks very similar to a modern PAR lamp. The lamp was thought to have been placed into production, shortly thereafter.

HEMSLEY, GILBERT V. JR. - (a 1945)

Gilbert Hemsley (USA) was a Professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a well liked and respected stage lighting designer. Unfortunately, he passed on, before his time.

PHOTOGRAPHY - POLAROID CAMERA - (1947)

In 1947, American Edwin Land invented the Polaroid instant camera. Land's big contribution was to develop a film that developed a positive image within seconds. Both the negative film and the positive paper were sandwiched together in the film pack. After being exposed, when the film is pulled from the camera it passes through rollers that break a chemical pod releasing chemicals that develop the film and transfer the image to the positive paper. The Polaroid camera is still very much in use today by both professional and amateur photographers alike. Film packs are available for both black & white and color prints. In 1963 one-step color film became available.
See also: [POLAROID FILTER].

FROST, ROBERT - (1947)

It Bids Pretty Fair (from Steeple Bush - 1947)
The play seems out for an infinite run.
Don't mind a little thing like the actors fighting
The only thing I worry about is the sun.
We'll be all right if nothing goes wrong with the lighting.

STRONG ELECTRIC COMPANY - (a 1947)

STRONG INTERNATIONAL, (established about 1947) is the oldest American manufacturer of motion picture projection light sources and followspots in the entertainment industry. 'Strong' followspots are of high quality and performance and are known around the world. Their products include: the Super Trouper (carbon arc spot), the Gladiator and the Trouperette. Most current models now use a [XENON] lamp.
Strong International
4350 McKinley Street
Omaha, NE, 68112, USA
402-453-4444.
WWW: http://www.strongint.com

CANDELA - (1948)

The modern unit adapted in 1948 for the measurement of light intensity is the candela (cd). One candela is equal to one square centimeter of a blackbody radiator at the temperature at which platinum solidifies (2046 degrees Kelvin). The former unit of intensity was the candlepower. This term is sometimes still used interchangeably with candela, today.
See also: [CANDLEPOWER].

SYLVANIA/OSRAM - (a 1950)

Sylvania is a large North American based lamp manufacturer. They are one of the largest in the world. About 1994, they combined forces with 'Osram' a large European lamp manufacturer. They are now known world wide as 'Osram/Sylvania'.

UNITED SCENIC ARTISTS - (a 1950)

The United Scenic Artists is an American based association of professional stage designers. Membership in the USA is generally considered necessary in order to be able to design on Broadway in New York City. Members include set designers, lighting designers, costume designers, and others. Requirements for membership are quite stringent and require both a written and practical examination, in most cases.

SON ET LUMINAIRE - (a 1950)

The French phenomenon of the Son et Luminaire (or light and sound show) has been produced at various antiquities around the world. These shows use large scale automated lighting and sound systems to produce scripted presentations, usually for the tourist. Large Son et Luminaire shows are regularly provided in Rome, Athens and Cairo.

PATTERN 23 - (1952)

The famous Pattern 23, - 500 watt Baby Mirror Spot, was introduced by STRAND ELECTRIC in 1952. This highly efficient and compact spotlight, became known as the PATT-23 and used for many years in theatres around the world. Different lens configurations were available, 4 framing shutters were standard, and the PATT-23 had optional accessories, including iris and template holder. The PATT-23 was finally retired about 1980, with fixtures of an even more efficient design. Note: many modern theatre spotlights (of similar size, weight and wattage) do not perform as well as this early fixture.

FIBER OPTICS - (1955)

The invention of fiber optics changed the world of communications and technology. The principal of 'total internal reflectance' had been known for some time and was demonstrated about 1870 by TYNDAL, when he shone a light at a spout of water as it gushed out of a tank. The water fell in an arc and the light went with it. See also: LIGHT PIPE, 1880.
The invention of modern fiber optics is credited to Kapany (British) in 1955 and at about the same time to Brian O'Brien Sr. at the American Optical Company in America. During the 1960's early fiber optics were developed as a means of transmitting messages as an alternative to electrical wires. By 1970 the Corning company produced the first practical fiber optic cable. It could transmit light about a third of a mile before most of the light was absorbed. By 1990 fiber optics were transmitting light more than 20 miles without a repeater. Fiber optics consist of small hair like optical fibers, bundled together within a plastic jacket. They come in various diameters and are quite flexible. Using high speed light pulses (traveling at the speed of light) fiber optics are able to transmit data, audio, video and telecommunications from location to location. Fiber optics can transmit far more information than electrical wire transmission systems, making them invaluable for computer and telephone applications.
Unlike conventional copper wires, fiber optic signals are not subject to electromagnet interference from nearby motors, ballasts, relays or electronic dimmers.
Fiber optics also transmit light in automotive, aircraft and medical equipment. Often car headlights are simply 'monitored' by running a fiber optic from the headlight to an indicator on the dashboard. The driver always knows 'for sure' if a headlight is operating or not, as the fiber optic is literally 'watching' the light from the headlight. In addition, there is no 'bulb' to burn out (and replace) in the dashboard. The system is truly maintenance free.
Fiber optics may also be manufactured as 'coherent' bundles, that is with all of the hundreds of individual similarly aligned at each end. An optic of this type is able to transmit and actual picture or image from one end to the other. This principle is used in the endoscope, an instrument used to look inside the body. Endoscopes are used to explore and biopsy such areas as the colon and the bronchi of the lungs as well as to perform surgery through small incisions.
See also: [LIGHT PIPE].

DICHROIC LAMPS - (a 1955)

These special reflector floods incorporate a dichroic reflector. In a lamp with a conventional reflector, much of the infrared energy (heat) from the source is reflected into the beam. In a lamp using a dichroic reflector, some infrared energy is dissipated out through the reflector, and not into the beam, resulting in a cooler beam. These 'cool beam' lamps are particularly useful for museum or gallery lighting applications where excess heat [INFRARED] could damage precious artwork or artifacts. Dichroic lamps are manufactured in MR11, MR16 and in various PAR sizes to PAR38.

ALTMAN STAGE LIGHTING - (c 1955)

The Altman Stage Lighting Company (U.S.A.) was established in the 1950's and has become one of the leading manufacturers of stage lighting fixtures, in the world. The Altman 360Q series of ellipsoidal reflector spotlights have become an international standard for performance and efficiency vs size and weight. Altman manufacturers a full range of all equipment types in various sizes and wattages. The company is located in Yonkers New York.
The company is very much a family business, started by Charlie Altman. In the start-up days, Charlie liked to compete with his brothers; Edward owned Capital Stage Lighting, Arthur owned Eastern Stage Lighting. Charlie Altman, Alice his wife, and other family members worked hard over the years. By the 1980's, Altman was the dominate lighting fixture manufacturer in North America and perhaps in the entire world. Alice Altman died in 1990. Charlie Altman died on May 5, 1995. He lived to be over 90 years old. The company is now run by Robert Altman, by children of Ronald Altman, and by other family members.
Altman Stage Lighting
57 Alexander Street
Yonkers, NY, 10701, USA
914-476-7987
800-4ALTMAN
WWW: http//www.altmanltg.com

COLORTRAN - (a 1955)

Colortran is a leading American manufacturer of theatre and television lighting fixtures, dimmers, control systems and accessories. In 1964 Colortran won an Academy Award for its development of the tungsten halogen fixture. During the 1970's and 1980's the company built a full and comprehensive range of products. The company changed ownership several times becoming first 'Berkey Colortran' and then later 'Lee Colortran'. In the late 1990's, the product line was taken over again by 'NSI Corporation', an already existing manufacturer of stage fixtures, dimming and control.
Colortran
A division of NSI Corporation
9126 SW Ridder Road
Wilsonville, OR, 97070, USA
503-576-6060
WWW:http//www.colortran.com

SCR DIMMER - SILICON CONTROLLED RECTIFIER - (1958)

S.C.R. (SCR) - In 1958, General Electric announced the introduction of the silicon controlled rectifier. This semiconductor device was about to revolutionize dimming applications for theatre and television lighting around the world. Previous to this time, dimming systems were large, generally inefficient and mechanically very complex.
The SCR allowed the design of compact, remote controlled dimming systems - with no moving parts in the dimmer. By 1960 [KLIEGL] was installing SCR systems, and [CENTURY] Lighting was installing their C-Core line. The SCR is still the basis of modern electronic dimming systems today.
The typical modern SCR dimmer employs two PNPN semiconductor devices commonly know as silicon control rectifiers, or thyristors, connected in inverse parallel and in series with the lamp load. A signal applied to the control gates of these devices is utilized to control their conduction period. The dimmer thereby controls the effective power dissipated in the lamp load and, thus the intensity of the lamps. The dimmer is completely inert and requires no maintenance.

MANITOBA THEATRE CENTRE (MTC) - (1958)

M.T.C. - In Canada, the 1950's to mid-1960's constituted the "regional theatre era". Each province was endowed with a government supported, permanent professional theatre. The Manitoba Theatre Centre founded in 1958 was the country's first. It was built following the landmark report issued by the government sponsored Massey-Levesque Commission which 1.) affirmed such a thing as Canadian culture did exist; 2.) devised the current system of government arts funding; and 3.) recommended the establishment of a federal arts funding body (The Canada Council) to be supplemented by provincial and municipal agencies.
The Manitoba Theatre Centre is still active today, producing or co-producing approximately 10 - 12 productions a year, between its two stages (Mainstage and Warehouse Theatres).

LASER - (1960)

The 'laser' - or - (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) was perfected in 1960, by research scientist Theodore Maiman at the Hughes Laboratory in Malibu California. The actual term 'laser' originated about 1957 by Gordon Gould (40) at the University of Columbia, where his notarized notebooks show the basic laser concept. Gould tried to interest American defense officials in the development of a potential 'death-ray', but as he was involved in some left-wing political activities in the early 1940's, the Defense Department classified his patent application secret, denied him security clearance, and confiscated his notebooks.
Physicists Charles H. Townes and his brother-in-law Arthur Schawlow were the first to actually apply for a patent on the laser and they were the first to publish their findings in scientific journals.
The He-Ne laser (red beam) was in commercial use, by 1968. Today many different types of lasers exist, for a wide range of applications. Lasers are used for surgery, for cutting metal, for determining distance, for projecting 3-dimensional holographic images, for computer printing and for entertainment lighting applications.
Laser light differs from ordinary light in four ways. Briefly it is much more intense, directional, monochromatic and coherent. Most lasers consist of a column of active material with a partly reflecting mirror at one end and a fully reflecting mirror at the other. In a typical solid laser material, a ruby crystal, the active ingredients are chromium atoms interspersed in the crystal lattice of aluminum oxide. The laser is primed by pumping these atoms, by means of a flash of intense light, to an excited state. This causes the system to produce a cascade of photons, all of the same wavelength and all in step with each other.
See also: [HOLOGRAM/HOLOGRAPHY]

HOLOGRAM/HOLOGRAPHY - (a 1960)

The term 'holography' was coined by Hungarian physicist Dennis Gabor in 1947, to describe a new form of three-dimensional images. His work related to the area of electron beam microscopes, however it became evident that a coherent light source was required to make a hologram and it was not until the laser was fully developed that his concepts were realized.
In the early, 1960's Emmet N. Leith and Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan working with a laser, created the first hologram or holographic image.
A hologram is created by splitting the beam of light from a laser into two, using a beam splitter and mirrors. One beam illuminates a photographic plate (the hologram). The other beam illuminates the object and reflects its image to the plate. The two beams set up an interference pattern that is recorded on film. The object can be captured in three-dimensions. To reconstruct the image, simply shine a laser of identical wavelength on the developed holographic plate. The image forms in mid-air. If you move around the image you will be able to view it from different angles in three-dimensions. Tear off a small piece of the hologram and you will still see the complete three-dimensional image. All of the information is contained in any part of the hologram.

LUMINAIRE - (a 1960)

A lighting fixture is properly referred to as a 'Fixture' or as an 'Instrument', in North America.....as a 'Light Fitting' or a 'Lantern' in Britain...and as a Luminaire (the 'e' is silent), in other parts of the world and by the engineering community. All of these terms are taken to mean: 'a complete lighting unit', usually consisting of; a metal housing, socket, lamp, reflector, electrical cord, connector and (lens). The term 'luminaire' is also commonly used by electrical engineers and architectural lighting designers. Although the word luminaire (from the French) has been in use for sometime, it is only in the 1960's that the term started to be used in North American theatre by the architectural and theatre lighting industries.

CCT THEATRE LIGHTING - (a 1960)

CCT was a large British based manufacturer of high quality stage and studio lighting fixtures. Installations include; the Bolshoi (Moscow), La Scala (Spain), the Lido (Paris), the Orpheum (Vancouver), the Sydney Opera House and the National Theatre (Britain). W.J. Furse & Co. Limited (Nottingham, England) acquired CCT about 1988.

FOUR STAR STAGE LIGHTING - (a 1960)

Four Star is a large New York based lighting company with a long reputation for lighting sales, rentals and service.
Four Star Lighting
30 Warren Place
Mount Vernon, N.Y., USA
914-667-9200.

IMERO FIORENTINO ASSOCIATES - (1960)

Founded in 1960, Imero Fiorentino Associates was originally a firm of leading television lighting directors and consultants. The firm has now expanded to provide lighting and staging consulting to concert, corporate and industrial projects. IRA has offices in New York, Las Vegas and Hollywood.

TEATRO - (a 1960)

Teatro is an Italian manufacturer of high quality stage and studio lighting fixtures. They make a wide range of fixtures from fixed and zoom ellipsoidal reflector spotlights, to floodlights and fresnel type fixtures.
Teatro
slr Via Inghilterra
2-4602 Castel Goffredo (Mn) Italy
Tel +39 (0)376-780702
Fax:+39 (0)376-780888

UNITED STATES INSTITUTE FOR THEATRE TECHNOLOGY (USITT) - (1960)

U.S.I.T.T. (USITT) - Non-profit membership association comprised of individuals, organizations, manufacturers and suppliers specializing in all aspects of technical production and design in the performing arts industry. USITT produces an Annual Conference and Stage Expo, publishes TD&T and Sightlines, sponsors projects, programs, research symposia and exhibits, and assists in developing industry standards for safe, efficient and ethical practices. Founded in 1960, the mission of the institute is to actively promote the advancement of the knowledge and skills of its members.
USITT
6443 Ridings Road
Syracuse, NY, 13206, USA
315-463-6463 TEL
315-463-6525 FAX
800-93USITT
WWW:http://www.ffa.ucalgary.ca/usitt/

QUARTZ HALOGEN LAMP - (1960)

(Also the TUNGSTEN HALOGEN) lamp was introduced in 1960 for use by the stage and studio market. General Electric often claims to have invented the halogen lamp in 1957.
The bulb of a typical tungsten filament lamp, blackens with age as the filament boils off and the tungsten is deposited on the bulb wall. Halogen lamps are 'self-cleaning'. Halogen vapor present in the lamp combines with particles of tungsten that have been evaporated from the filament and redeposits them on the filament. For this process to take place, bulb wall temperatures should not be below. 482ø F., (250 øC.) Hot spots on the bulb wall may go as high as 1250ø F., (700ø C.) Lamp base temperatures should not exceed 622ø F., (350ø C.), as above that point, lead wires may deteriorate and the basing cement may loosen, causing premature lamp failure.

METAL HALIDE LAMP - (a 1960)

The first metal halide lamp was developed about 1960. Metal Halide lamps are essentially mercury high pressure discharge lamps that have additional metal halides in their arc tubes. Metal Halide lamps provide improved efficiency and improved color rendering qualities over mercury lamps. The modern metal halide lamp has a luminous efficiency of 85-115 lumens per watt.

THORN LIGHTING - (a 1960)

Thorn was a leading European manufacturer of high quality lighting fixtures, lamps and accessories. Their lamp division was taken over by the General Electric Company in the early 1990's. Several years later the company ceased all operations.

'CINEMOID' COLOR FILTERS - (a 1960)

In the early days of the electric filament lamp, gelatin color filters were used to color stage lighting fixtures. Gelatin filters dissolved when wet, and could not withstand the high heat from the tungsten halogen lamp (developed in the early 1960's). As a result, a new type of filter, 'Cinemoid', was developed by [STRAND ELECTRIC] (London). Cinemoid used a colored acetate sheeting, with inherent self-extinguishing properties. Less than 60 colors were shown by a 1966 product catalog sheet. 'Cinemoid' is no longer produced and has been replaced by polyester based materials, such as 'Roscolux' and 'Lee' filters.
See also: [ROSCOLUX], [LEE]

LIGHTING TEMPLATE - (a 1960)

Lighting designers working in theatre and television often must produce a drawing known as the 'light plot'. This drawing will use a number of specialized symbols to represent the specific type of lighting fixtures, required. The fixtures will usually be shown to scale, and will be drawn in their exact position.
About 1960, the plastic drafting template was developed, specifically for the lighting designer. This greatly assisted in the drawing of lighting symbols. Although plastic drawing templates are now widely available through any stage lighting supply company, Lighting Associates has long produced a number of different lighting templates specifically for the lighting, sound and scenic designer.
Lighting Associates
P.O. Box 229
Chester, CT, 06412, USA
Tel: (203) 526-9315

LIGHT BULB JOKES - (c 1960)

Somewhere around 1960, the 'light bulb' jokes started to appear throughout North America. Some of the best of the worst, are as follows:
Q: How many Californians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Six. One to turn the bulb, one for support, and four to share the experience.
Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Five. One to change the bulb and four more to chase off the Californians who have come up to share the experience.
Q: How many New Yorkers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None of your damn business!
Q: How many Union Electricians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: 50 - its in the contract.
Q: How many straight San Franciscans does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Both of them.
Q: How many WASPs does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Two. One to call the electrician and one to mix the martinis.
Q: How many Psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one, but the bulb has got to really WANT to change.
Q: How many `Real Women' does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None: A 'Real Woman' would have plenty of real men around to do it.
Q: How many `Real Men' does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None: `Real Men' aren't afraid of the dark.
Q: How many Jewish mothers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None. ("That's all right...I'll just sit here in the dark...")
Q: How many mice does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Two. (Hint:They are small enough to fit inside).
Q: How many valley girls does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Oooh, like, manual labor? Gag me with a spoon! For sure.
Q: How many managers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Three. One to get the bulb and two to get the phone number to dial one of their subordinates to actually change it.
Q: How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: How many can you afford?
Q: How many Jewish-American Princesses does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Two. One to get a Tab and one to call Daddy.
Q: How many accountants does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: What kind of answer did you have in mind?
Q: How many mystery writers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Two, one to screw it almost all the way in and the other to give it a surprising twist at the end.
Q: How many consultants does it take to change a light bulb?
A: I'll have an estimate for you a week from Monday.
Q: How many people from New Jersey does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three. One to change the light bulb, one to be a witness, and the third to shoot the witness.

ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH THEATRE TECHNICIANS - (1961)

A.B.T.T. (ABTT) - was founded in 1961 to provide a forum for discussion among theatre technicians, to collect and disseminate information of a technical nature and to advise and assist all those involved in the planning and construction or reconstruction of new and existing theatres. The organization is based in London.

SKIRPAN ELECTRONICS - (1965)

Skirpan Electronics was founded in 1965 by Stephen J. Skirpan. The company (located in Long Island City, N.Y.) rapidly grew to be a leading manufacturer of computer assisted lighting control systems. Their control system known as the "Autocue", used a light pencil and video monitor, for operator input. Their "Astral" dimmer was one of the first compact dimmers produced by the industry. It was a small 'strip' (1.75" high), dimmer, packaged for installation in a standard 19" rack. Unfortunately Skirpan Electronics closed their doors about 1980.

ASSOCIATED DESIGNERS OF CANADA - (1965)

A.D.C. (ADC) - Founded in 1965, (Canada) the A.D.C. represents professional designers working in the theatre and film industries. Members include; set, costume, lighting and sound designers located across Canada. The organization is dedicated to promoting professional and public recognition of the designer's role, as well as increasing communications among Canadian designers. Although not a union, the A.D.C. provides a similar function, as does the United Scenic Artists, in America. Currently, the A.D.C. has approximately 150 members, located across Canada.

LIGHT EMITTING DIODE - (a 1965)

The light emitting diode (LED) is p-n junction semiconductor lamp which emits radiation then biased in a forward direction. The emitted radiation may be either invisible (infrared) or in the visible spectrum. Visible solid state lamps are used for long life indicator service. Infrared diodes have outputs carefully matched to silicon photoreceivers. They are used in conjunction with the receivers, for counting, sensing, and positioning applications. LED's generally operate in the range of 1 to 3 volts at currents of 10 to 100, milliamperes continuous.
LED's are commonly used in indicator lighting applications. Due to their very long life and low operating current, they are ideal replacements for incandescent indicator lights. Early LED's came in red only. Next green and amber were introduced. By the mid 1990's blue and white LED's had been developed.

PABLO LIGHT SHOW - (a 1966)

Pablo, was a New York City company of light show artists, and technicians that performed throughout the late 1960's and 1970's. Experts in projection techniques, the artists at Pablo provided some of the most detailed and dynamic projection shows, using a wide range of photographic and hand painted slides.
One special projection technique used, was the 'amoeba'. The amoeba was performed using a horizontal (overhead type) projector and two large watch glasses of about 14" and 12" in diameter. The larger glass was placed on the projector and filled with various oils, alcohols and waters, colored with dye. Next the smaller dish was gently placed on top of the mixture and then 'squashed' in time with the music. When projected on a 20 ft. x 20 ft. rear screen behind a performer the effect was usually quite spectacular, as a giant, kinetic, dancing blob constantly changed in color, complexity and form. It was totally psychedelic.
Pablo's multi-media presentations included theatre and television productions, corporate presentations, fashion shows, discotheques and concerts. The Pablo Light Show provided visual support to virtually all of the major rock groups of the time. The founders of the company included: Patrick Firpo, Jay Moss and Bob Quinn.

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW - (a 1966)

Under the creative guidance of Joshua White, the Joshua Light Show Group consisted of several talented projection artists and technicians. For a period of time, the New York City based group was the resident light show at the Fillmore East. They also provided special effects for films (including Midnight Cowboy), stage productions and television.
The Joshua Light Show provided the colorful background to many musical performers and groups in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The show was projected on a large rear screen (20' x 40' typical) and used a wide range of projection equipment, including slide, overhead and film projectors. Equipment was typically modified to suit the specific needs of the 'light artists.' Usually working from a scaffolding behind the rear screen, the artists would create a kinetic and always changing blend of light and imagery, always synchronized with the music. The affect was mind blowing (or so it seemed at the time).

SODIUM LAMP - (HIGH PRESSURE) - (1966)

H.P.S. (HPS) - The high pressure sodium lamp has steadily developed and gained in popularity, since its introduction 1966. It provides a more economical source of illumination than mercury, fluorescent, or incandescent and has a more natural color than low pressure sodium. The H.P.S. sodium lamp has a luminous efficacy of approximately 80-140 lumens per watt.
See also: SODIUM LAMP - (LOW PRESSURE)

'LEE' COLOR FILTERS - (1967)

'Lee' (by Lee Electric Lighting, Britain), manufacturers a wide range of filter and light control products for stage, film and television lighting applications. The company was founded by David Holmes an accomplished lighting cameraman. The company is known around the world for their extensive product range of color filters for the stage and color correction filters for the film and television industries. All Lee's light control and color effect filters are made from a tough polyester film base, which is impervious to water, is totally transparent and has a high melting point. 1500 meter rolls of the film are coated with specially prepared lacquers. Each formula is recorded on a computer, to ensure the exact reproduction of color, from batch to batch. The lacquer coating is applied to both sides of the film, is also tough and flexible and has a high resistance to water and heat.
Lee Filters
2301 W. Victory Blvd.
Burbank, CA, 91506, USA
818-238-1220
800-576-5055
Canada: 416-890-0935

COLOR ORGAN, (EARLY ELECTRONIC) - (c 1967)

For centuries, man tried to provide a scientific correlation between the color spectrum and the audio spectrum. It wasn't until mid 1960's that a practical color organ device was developed for entertainment lighting applications. This was the 'electronic' color organ. At first transistors and then later SCR's were used to drive a number of incandescent lamps. The typical color organ had three (3) channels. Different colored lamps would be attached to each channel. Each channel would be controlled by a separate audio input, tuned to a specific audio frequency. A typical three (3) channel unit might be wired as follows:

    Channel    Lamp Color        Frequency
      ------------------------------------------
        1          Red           Hi    (10-20Kz)
        2          Green         Mid   ( 5-10Kz)
        3          Blue          Low   ( 0  5Kz)  

When activated, the 3 channels of lights would automatically dance and respond to the beat of the music. More advanced color organs might contain as many as 15 individual channels. This color organ became popular for discotheque and psychedelic lighting applications. Today, many entertainment lighting control boards now also contain advanced color organ functions.

HMI LAMP - (1969)

The HMI lamp (mercury medium arc iodides), first appeared in Germany. These metal halide lamps were developed by OSRAM GmbH to meet a need established by the German Federal Television System in 1969, and their use quickly spread throughout Europe and to the rest of the world. Although originally designed for television lighting, they are now used for location film lighting and as a source for many common followspot spotlights. The modern HMI lamp is highly efficient (100-110 lumens per watt), and produces a daylight type spectrum with a color temperature of 5600 degrees K. Lamp wattages currently range from 200 to more than 12,000 watts.
The HTI lamp is a more recent version of the HMI. They area available with an integral reflector and are often used in followspots, fiber optic illuminators and in slide projectors.
Although not widely know in the name HMI, the H stands for mercury (Hg), M indicates presence of Metals and the I refers to the addition of halogen components (iodide, bromide). HMI is the registered trademark of Osram Lighting.
See also: [OSRAM] and [METAL HALIDE].

USHIO - (c 1969)

Ushio is a leading manufacturer of stage, studio and specialized lamp products.
Ushio America, Inc.
20101 S. Vermont Avenue
Torrance, CA 90502
Tel: (800) 326-1960
Tel: (213) 329-1960

GREAT AMERICAN MARKET - (a 1970)

G.A.M. (GAM) - The Great American Market Company supplies a great many products to the professional theatre and stage industries. Products include color filters, [GOBOS], projection equipment, lighting control systems, and other speciality products. They are also the North American distributor for the RDS projection system, marked under the name of the Great American Scene Machine.
Great American Market
826 N. Cole Avenue
Hollywood, CA 90038
Tel: (213) 461-0200
Tel: (213) 461-4308

EARLY AUTOMATED LIGHTING - (a 1970)

Automated luminaires first started to appear in the USA in the early 1970's. One of the first was the 'Moto-Light' manufactured by Dyna-Light, Springfield, MO. Another early automated lighting fixture was the 'Mac Spot' from Europe. The Mac Spot retrofitted a conventional Par64 fixture, allowing remote horizontal and vertical positioning (physical movement of the fixture). It did nothing else. Modern automated fixtures, in addition to pan and tilt movement, also provide variable color, focus and template adjustments.
See also: [VARI-LITE] and [AUTOMATED LIGHTING FIXTURES].

AVAB - (1972)

AVAB Electronik AB, one of the world's leading manufacturers of professional stage and studio dimming products, has its headquarters in Gothenberg, Sweden. Their control and dimming systems have always been considered to be state-of-the-art in design and engineering around the world. AVAB purchased EMIL [NIETHAMMER] (c 1982) a large German manufacturer of lighting fixtures. Avab founded around 1972 now also has an office in the USA.
AVAB Transtechnik AB
Salsm„staregatan 32
S-422 46 Hisings Backa Sweden
+46 31 585 200
Email: sales@avab.se

DHA LIGHTING INC - (1972)

(D.H.A.) - Founded by lighting director [DAVID HERSEY], the British firm specializes in lighting equipment design and manufacturing, with products ranging from slides to moving effects, fiber optics and software. The company also specializes in etching metal and glass [GOBOS] from custom artwork. In North America, the company is represented by [ROSCO].
DHA Lighting Ltd.
284-302 Waterloo Road
London SE1 8RQ
Tel: 44-171-771-2900
Tel: 44-171-771-2901

THEATRE MAGIC - (1974)

Founded in 1974, Columbus OH USA based Theatre Magic, sells special effect equipment and accessories for the stage and studio industries. They have an extensive range of etched metal projection patterns [GOBOS]. In 1992 they changed their name to SFX DESIGN.
SFX Design
6099 Godown Road
Colombus OH 43235 USA
Tel: 614-459-3222
Fax: 614-459-5087

AUTOMATED LIGHTING FIXTURES - (c 1975)

The development of the automated lighting fixture in the early 1980's caused a revelation and a breakthrough in entertainment lighting design. Although several different automated fixtures first appeared in the 1970's, most were crude and mechanically awkward. Early products included the 'MacSpot' and the 'Moto-lite'. They used conventional stage lighting fixtures (PARS's, lekos, etc,) fitted with a large mechanized yoke. The yoke allowed the fixtures to pan, tilt, and not much else.
In 1981 the American company [VARI-LITE] was the first to make a successful automated fixture that gained wide acceptance. The fixture was called the Vari*Lite and allowed remote control of pan, tilt, and color. The fixtures were and are still today, mechanically, electrically and optically complex. For this reason Vari*lite provides a technician, on-site to service equipment as needed.
Today, there are now several other manufacturers providing reliable and comprehensive automated lighting fixtures. Both [HIGH END SYSTEMS INC] and [MARTIN], now provide a wide range of automated lighting products gaining acceptance throughout the world. Other manufactures include Clay Paky, Coemar Nat and [STRAND].

ELECTRONIC THEATRE CONTROLS INC. - (1975)

E.T.C. (ETC) is a leading American manufacturer of theatre; control, dimming, and lighting fixtures. Their dimmers and control systems are clearly among the best in the industry. In the mid 1990's E.T.C. developed a series of 575 watt spotlights, known as the 'Source-4' series. These fixtures are generally smaller, more compact, and more efficient than any similar fixtures, available to date - marking a new generation in fixture design and development.
E.T.C. also makes a fixture known as the 'Source-4-Par'. This fixture, provides a beam similar to a PAR64 lamp, except the beam is round and not oval. All fixtures use the same single ended tungsten halogen lamp, however the beam spread is controlled by using one of the four 'spread lenses' included with each fixture, allowing; spot, medium flood, wide flood and flood capabilities, all from the same fixture.
Electronic Theatre Controls
3030 Laura Lane
Middleton, WI, 53562, USA
608-831-4116

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LIGHTING DESIGNERS - (a 1975)

I.A.L.D. (IALD) - is a professional organization for lighting designers whose education and training may be in architecture, interior design, theatre or electrical engineering. Dedicated to the professional advancement of lighting design, IALD members may not be involved in any way with the sale of lighting products.
I.A.L.D.
18 East 16th Street
Suite 208
New York, NY, 10003
212-206-1291.

DESISTI LIGHTING - (a 1975)

De Sisti Lighting, (also Desisti) is a leading manufacturer of high quality lighting fixtures and accessories for the stage, film and television industries. Desisti makes a wide range of spotlights and floodlights, for both incandescent and discharge type lamps. They have offices and representatives, located around the world.
De Sisti Lighting Srl
00040 Cecchina - Albano Laziale (Rome) - Italy
Tel: 06/9344414
Fax: 06/9343489

JULIAT, ROBERT - (a 1975)

Robert Juliet a French based firm, manufactures a broad line of HMI and tungsten profile spotlights, fresnels, and followspots. Many units are of extremely high quality in respect to design, engineering and construction.
Robert Juliat
62/64 rue Danielle, Casanova F
93207 Saint-Denis Cedex
tel: (33) 1.42.43.35.35
fax: 1.42.43.08.05.

THEATRE BOOKS - (1975)

Theatre Books (Book shop) was established in 1975 in Toronto Canada. It is a large specialized store (at 11 St. Thomas Street) handling a vast collection of arts, theatre and motion picture books. (416) 922-7175.

AMX192 - (c 1975)

AMX192 is an older control protocol standard for dimmers. The standard, adapted by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, is non proprietary and may be used by all manufacturers. AMX192 uses a small twisted pair cable to communicate with a maximum of 192 dimmers. The data signal is 'de-multiplexed' (usually at the dimmers) resulting in individual 'analog' control signals (usually 0-10 volt, DC). A newer control protocol [DMX512] provides digital control to a maximum of 512 dimmers, on a single twisted pair cable.

'ROSCOLUX' COLOR FILTERS - (1978)

'Roscolux' color filters were introduced by the American company [ROSCO] in about 1978. Today Roscolux with more than 140 different colors has become one of the most recognized and widely used filters in the world. The filters are designed to withstand the high temperatures of stage and studio lighting fixtures, unlike earlier filters made from acetate or gelatin. Some filter manufacturers simply surface coat clear plastic to form their colors. These filters may scratch and the surface color may actually vaporize from the surface, through atmospheric contact. Roscolux filters are colored when the plastic is in the resin stage before the polymer is cast into film. This results in a tough, resistant and durable filter with the color actually part of the plastic, instead of just applied to it.

WESTSUN - (1978)

From its inception in 1978 as a local lighting rental house, Westsun has grown to a recognized international supplier to the event and entertainment industries. With companies and equipment stocks located throughout Canada and the United States, Westsun offers comprehensive lighting, sound, staging, and drapery - sales and rentals. Extensive fabrication shops allow for the design and construction of automated scenery, specialized staging and custom lighting products. In 1997, Westsun International Inc. moved into a new 70,000 square foot corporate headquarters in Winnipeg, Canada. Recently, Westsun Show Systems Inc. has provided lighting or sound to a number of 'mega-musicals', including; Disney's 'The Lion King', 'Show Boat', 'The Phantom of the Opera', 'Rag Time' and 'Sunset Boulevard'.
Westsun Winnipeg Inc.
Attn: Marc Raymond
1390 Pacific Avenue
Winnipeg, Canada, R3E 1G6
204-774-7800
800-WESTSUN
WWW: http://www.westsun.com

TIR SYSTEMS - (a 1980)

The commerical light pipe is a Canadian invention, developed by TIR Systems Ltd., (Burnaby, BC). Single point source luminaires direct light into hollow linear light guides to produce, through the principle of Total Internal Reflection, lines of brilliant white or colored light. Light pipes are made of extruded, impact resistant, clear acrylic, and use a 250 watt, metal halide lamp, with a life of approximately 10,000 hours. One luminaire is required for every 44-foot run of light guide.
Various architectural and decorative lighting applications are ideally suited to use of the light pipe. As the entire length of the 'pipe' emits light, the light pipe might be used to provide lighting above a swimming pool or to other generally inaccessible locations. The luminaire is usually located in an accessible location, along the side of the pool area.
See also: [LIGHT PIPE].

VARI-LITE - (1981)

VARI*LITE - Although a number of attempts had been made in recent years at developing a 'moving' or automated, lighting fixture, the Vari*Lite was the first to gain acceptance. In fact the Vari*Lite revolutionized the music and entertainment lighting industry. Automated fixtures, that pan, tilt, change color, project different patterns - are extremely complex devices. The Vari*Lite, Model 1, was introduced on the Genesis tour in 1981, by Showco, USA.

VL1 - introduced in 1981
VL2C - spot luminaire, introduced in 1993, (uses 600 watt HTI source)
VL5 - wash luminaire. incandescent model.
VL5A - wash luminaire, 575W MSR, twice as bright, as VL5.
Also see: [AUTOMATED LIGHTING FIXTURES]
Additional reading: Lighting Dimensions Nov. 1986 (great photos)
Vari-Lite Inc.
201 Regal Row
Dallas, TX, 75247, USA
214-630-1963
WWW: http://www.vari-lite.com

DMX512 - (1986)

DMX512 is a standard for digital data transmission between lighting controllers and dimmers. A committee of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology developed DMX512 as a non proprietary digital protocol to be used by all manufacturers. DMX512 uses a small twisted pair cable to communicate with a large number of dimmers. It does so by digitally encoding the dimmer level information and sending the data for multiple dimmers over the control cable, one dimmer at a time, one after another. The dimmer level is encoded as one byte (eight bits). The information is sent to the dimmers at a rapid rate, and has to always be present to keep the dimmer from going to black. Update rate of 20 - 40 times per second are common.
Up to 512 dimmers can be controlled on a single twisted pair. Often a second twisted pair is also run for 'talkback' or other applications. DMX applications typically use 5 pin XLR type connectors. The use of 3 pin XLR connectors is not recommended by the USITT standard.
Pin 1 - shield - ground
Pin 2 - black - data (-)-
Pin 3 - white - data (+)
Pin 4 - green - spare data (-)
Pin 5 - red - spare date (+)
See also: [AMX192].
Additional reading: Recommended Practice for DMX512 by Adam Bennette, 1994, published by PLASA & USITT.

ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES & TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION - (1987)

E.S.T.A. (ESTA) - Founded in 1987, ESTA is a non-profit trade association representing the North American entertainment technology industry. Many of the members are equipment dealers or manufacturers. Other members provide services only. In addition to members in the United States and Canada, ESTA has members in a number of countries, throughout the world.
ESTA
875 Sixth Avenue
New York, NY, 10001, USA
212-244-1505
WWW: http://www.esta.org/

SUNLIGHT AND CANCER - (a 1990)

It was in the early 1990's when modern medicine brought us the bad new regarding sun and skin cancer. Now the evidence is clear and indisputable. There is no such thing as a 'nice natural tan' anymore . Although we still worship the sun, as did our ancestors, we now do so with a whole new respect.
There are three kinds of skin cancer, basal cell carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, and melanomas. In the US there were 500,000 cases of the first, 100,000 of the second, and 27,600 of the third in 1990. [Wayne] More than 90% of the skin carcinomas in the US are attributed to UV-B exposure: their frequency varies sharply with latitude, just as UV does. The mechanism by which UV-B induces carcinomas has been identified - the pyrimidine bases in the DNA molecule form dimers when stimulated by UV-B radiation. [Taylor] [Tevini] [Young et al.]. Fortunately, these cancers are relatively easy to treat if detected in time, and are rarely fatal. Skin carcinoma rates vary sharply with latitude, just as UV-B does. Fair-skinned people of North European ancestry are particularly susceptible; the highest rates in the world are found in Queensland, a northerly province of Australia, where a population of largely English and Irish extraction is exposed to very high natural UV radiation levels.
Malignant melanoma is much more dangerous, but its connection with UV exposure is not well understood. There seems to a correlation between melanomas and brief, intense exposures to UV (long before the cancer appears.) Melanoma incidence is definitely correlated with latitude, with twice as many deaths (relative to state population) in Florida or Texas as in Wisconsin or Montana, but this correlation need not imply a causal relationship. Some claim that UV-A, which is not absorbed by ozone, may be involved. [Skolnick] [Setlow et al.]

SULFUR LAMP - (1994)

One of the more exciting recent developments in light source technology is the sulfur lamp. This source was developed in 1994 by Fusion Lighting (USA), with support from the U.S, Department of Energy. About the size of a golf ball, the sulfur lamp consists of a quartz bulb containing non-toxic sulfur and inert argon gas at the end of a thin glass stick. A microwave energy source of 2.45 Ghz. (magnetron) bombards the lamp while a fan cooled motor spins the lamp at 3400 rpm. The microwave energy excites the gas, which heats the sulfur, forming a brightly glowing plasma that can illuminate a very large area.
The first early prototype lamps were 5.9 Kw. units with a system efficacy of 80 lumens per watt. Correlated color temperature was about 6000K with a color rendering index of 79 CRI. The sulfur lamp starts within seconds even at low ambient temperatures and can be dimmed. The surfer lamp emits no electric or magnetic fields and the light output remains constant over its life.
A new version, the LightDrive 1000, is a 1425 watt device that produces 135,000 lumens after about 20 seconds. The current technology produces approximately 120 lumens per watt (including losses).
The energy output is continuous throughout the visual spectrum (much like sunlight) however the source is low in both the ultraviolet and infrared energy. The design life of the lamp is currently approximately 60,000 hours, however the design life of the magnetron is currently only about 15,000-20,000 hours.
One of the first early fixtures to use the sulfur lamp was developed by Cooper Lighting (USA). The fixture was incorporated into a free standing kiosk, providing uplight to the ceiling and a fixture efficiency of 85-88 percent. Other lighting companies are currently working with Fusion lighting to develop new fixtures and equipment for the sulfur lamp.
Fusion Lighting, USA, 301-284-7236.

MODERN STAGE LIGHTING DESIGNERS

BENTHAM, FREDERICK

Frederick Bentham (Britain) is an acknowledged pioneer and authority on lighting for the stage. He was in charge of research and development at [STRAND ELECTRIC] from approximately 1935, until 1965. He was responsible for the technical development of many early Strand lighting fixtures and related products.
Bentham published a book on 'The Art of Stage Lighting' in 1968. This publication has been revised and is still today considered to be a major textbook on the subject.
Bentham was also the author of "Tabs" from its inception in 1938 until 1973.

BILLINGTON, KEN

Ken Billington is a well known, New York based stage lighting designer. He studied at The Studio and Forum of Stage Design in New York, and later went on to assist Tharon Musser, Tom Skelton, and others. He has designed the lighting for over 50 Broadway productions (including; Fiddler on the Roof & Sweeney Todd) and his concert credits include work with Shirley MacLaine, Ann-Margaret and Liza Minnelli. He won a Tony award for his lighting of 'Chicago'.

BRIDGE, ANDREW

"Stage lighting designer (British). Bridge won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Awards for his designs for the "Phantom of the Opera". West End credits include the Musicals, "Time", "Oliver", "An Evening with Tommy Steele", "Troville and Dean", "Bing Crosby" and many others". (REF: quote from, Rosco, Pattern Catalog, 1996)

CLARK, PEGGY

Peggy Clark is a leading American stage lighting designer (American).

DAVIDSON, DAVID

"Davidson, has designed the lighting for some of the most acclaimed performers and acts in the world. A partial list of his most recent clients includes Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Jackson Brown, and Kiss. In addition, he has designed lighting for such acts as Ted Nugent, Stray Cats, The Kinks, Englebert Humperdinct, The Jacksons, Santana, The Blues Brothers and Hot Tuna." (REF: quote from, Rosco, Pattern Catalog, 1996)

FEDER, ABE

Abe Feder was one of the first independent lighting designers in both the theatrical and architectural worlds. His Broadway credits include "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot". His architectural lighting credits range the world and include the United Nations in New York, the Israel National Museum in Jerusalem, Philharmonic Hall in Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

FEHER, ERWIN M.

Studied stage design at the Federal Institute of Technology, Graz, Austria and at Columbia University. He worked in the graduate school of Yale University-MFA program. He joined with JO MIELZINER in planning for the New York World's Fair in 1964, and for a time was a specialist for projection design at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Erwin Feher published a number of books, including the very comprehensive "Towards a Theater of Light".

FINGERHUT, ARDEN

Stage lighting designer (American)

FISHER, JULES

Jules Fisher is a well known American lighting designer, who works extensively in both theatre and architectural lighting design. His Broadway credits include the lighting for "No No Nanette", "Hair", "Lenny", "Pippin", "Butterflies are Free", "Half a Sixpence", "High Spirits", and many more. He has won 6 Tony Awards and in his spare time, he practices magic.

GALLO, PAUL

Paul Gallo (New York), has designed the lighting for many Broadway productions, including "Six Degrees of Separation", "The Little Foxes", "Grown Ups", "Heartbreak House", and many others. He has received Tony nominations for "Anything Goes" (1988), "The House of Blue Leaves" (1988) and "The City of Angels" (1990). He is also the recipient of two Obe Awards and the Maharam Award. (REF: quote from, Rosco, Pattern Catalog, 1996).

GLEASON, JOHN

Gleason (American) was the Associate Chair of the Department of Design at New York University and was the resident lighting designer for the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center from 1967 to 1972. He designed the acclaimed revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire". On Broadway, he has designed more than 90 shows, including: "My Fair Lady", "Hello Dolly", "The Great White Hope", and "Over Here".

HERSEY, DAVID

David Hersey, (American) stage lighting designer, has lived in London for over twenty years and has designed over 200 production for major national theatre, operas and ballet companies. West End productions include: Cats, Starlight Express, Les Mis‚rables, Chess and Miss Saigon. For ten years he was lighting consultant for the National Theatre in London. His work has also been seen in New York on Broadway. David Hersey also manages D.H.A., a leading British supplier of specialized lighting accessories and effects.

MUSSER, THARON

Tharon Musser is a well known American stage lighting designer. She has received three Tony Awards for her work on "Follies", "A Chorus Line", and "Dream Girls". Her many contributions include being the first lighting designer to use a computer lighting system on Broadway. She has designed plays and many musicals and operas around the world. Her work on Broadway includes: "The Sunshine Boys", "A Little Night Music", "Applause", "A Long Day's Journey Into Night", "42nd Street", "The Wiz", "Chorus Line", "Follies" and "Ballroom".
Additional reading: Lighting Dimensions, March 1990.

PILBROW, RICHARD

Richard Pilbrow (Britain) is a leading designer and authority on the subject of stage lighting. His work since 1958 has been seen in more than 200 productions, principally in London but also in New York and Moscow. His excellent book on lighting; "Stage Lighting", first published in 1970, is often considered to be a leading text on the subject. His new book "Stage Lighting Design" was published in 1997.
Richard Pilbrow is also founder of Theatre Projects, a large London based theatre consulting firm, now also based in the USA. As theatre consultant, he has designed the stages and lighting for a number of theatres, including the National Theatre of Great Britain, the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts (Canada), and the Barbican Theatre for the Royal Shakespeare company.

LESTER POLAKOV

Stage designer (U.S.A.) Polakov formed and ran the Lester Polakov Studio and Forum of Stage Design at 727 Washington Street in New York City for many years. Reid is a well known British lighting designer and consultant. He is also the author of a great many articles relating to theatre and stage lighting.

SVOBODA, JOSEF

One of the most renowned and inventive designers in the world today is the contemporary Czech designer, Josef Svoboda. With hundreds of productions to his credit, Svoboda is best known for his remarkable technical innovations in lighting, projection and kinetic scenery. Svoboda views science and technology as a means to an end, as instruments to be controlled by an artistic vision. More often than is generally thought, his scenography employs the simplest of technical devices or virtually eliminates them. What is almost never absent from his work however is a poetic, theatrically organized sensibility.
Additional reading: Theatre Design and Technology, Summer 1976 and February 1970)

TIPTON, JENNIFER

Jennifer Tipton (American), is a well known lighting designer for theatre dance and opera. She has designed the lighting for such leading choreographers as Jerome Robbins, Mikhall Baryshnikov and Twyla Tharp. She won a Tony award for her lighting of "The Cherry Orchard". Her many lighting awards include two Bessies, two Tonys, a Joseph Jefferson Award, a Kudo, and others. Ms. Tipton also teaches lighting at the Yale University School of Drama.

WECHSLER, GIL

Stage lighting designer (American)

WHITFIELD, MICHAEL

Michael Whitfield has designed over 50 productions for the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and more than 80 productions for the Stratford Shakespearean Festival where he is the resident lighting designer. The operas cover the entire range from Albert Herring to Idomeneo and include among others Fidelio, Aida and Electra. In addition to productions at Stratford, he has designed such productions as Cabaret, Carousel and Our Town. His designs have also been seen at the San Francisco Opera, the Welsh National Opera, De Nederlandse Operastichting, the National Ballet of Canada, Canadian regional theatres and in London's West End. (REF: quote from, Rosco, ad. TCI. April 1993).

WILLIAMS, BILL

Bill Williams is a well known Canadian lighting designer, working in the fields of stage and architectural lighting design. Williams studied lighting design in New York, at The Studio and Forum of Stage Design, where his work was strongly influenced by one of his teachers, lighting designer Tom Skelton. In the 1960's Williams worked as a designer with the New York based, multimedia group 'Pablo', where he designed and developed special effects and projection equipment for one of the world's leading 'light shows'.
In the early 1970's, Williams returned to Canada and established an active design practice in Winnipeg. When not designing for the stage, he works as a theatre consultant, assisting architects with the design of theatres and cultural facilities. Subsequent work has included more than 500 projects in over a dozen countries, around the world. Bill Williams is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada and is also the author of this file.

LIGHT - NATURAL PHENOMENA

SUN & SUNLIGHT

For years, man thought that the earth was the center of the known universe, not the sun. It was only in the 16th Century that COPERNICUS finally proved the sun to be the center of our solar system.
The main part of the sun's radiation at sea level, lies between about 290 and 3,500 nanometers The shorter wavelengths are [ULTRAVIOLET], and the longer are [INFRARED]. Visible wavelengths lie in the relatively narrow wavelength band of 380 to 770 nanometers. Intensity and spectral composition of natural daylight vary with time of day, season, geographical location and weather.

MOON & MOONLIGHT

The moon shines solely by virtue of its ability to reflect sunlight. It is approximately 238,000 miles from the earth. It takes about 8 minutes for the light of the sun to reach the moon and another 1.3 seconds for the light reflected from the moon, to reach the earth.
Illumination on the earth's surface by the moon may be as high as 0.2 lux, (.002 fc).

LIGHTNING

Lightning is a meteorological phenomenon arising from accumulation, in the formation of clouds, of large electrical charges. The charges are (usually positive) are suddenly released in a spark type of discharge.
About 100 times every second, the earth is struck with lightning, which streams down in belts 1,000 to 9,000 feet long. A single bolt may develop 3750 kilowatts. About 75 percent of the energy in lightning is dissipated as heat that rises the temperature of surrounding air to about 27,000øF. This causes the air to expand quickly, like the gases in an explosion. The movement creates sound waves that can be heard as thunder for distances of up to 18 miles. ..(REF: Time, Energy, 1963) (PHOTO: Time, Energy, 1996)
Divide time delay (in seconds) between lightning and thunder by 5, to calculate approximate storm distance (in miles).

AURORA BOREALIS (NORTHERN LIGHTS)

"These hazy horizontal patches or bands of greenish light on which white, pink or red streamers sometimes are superimposed appear 60 to 120 miles above the earth. They are caused by electron streams spiraling into the atmosphere, primarily at polar latitudes". (REF: quote from: I.E.S. Lighting Handbook - Ref. Vol. 1881)

AURORA AUSTRALIS (SOUTHERN LIGHTS)

The same phenomenon of the Northern Lights, also exists in the southern hemisphere and is know as the Aurora Australis. See also: [AURORA BOREALIS].

BIOLUMINESCENCE

"Living Light - is a form of chemiluminescence in which special compounds manufactured by plants and animals are oxidized, producing light. Although is has been proven that oxygen is required to produce bio luminescence, there is no evidence that the light producing compound must be a 'living' material The light producing compound may be dried and stored for many years and upon exposure to oxygen, emit light". (REF: I.E.S. Lighting Handbook - Ref. Vol. 1981)

MAN MADE LIGHT SOURCES

"Historically, light sources have been divided into two types - incandescent and luminescent. Fundamentally the cause of light emission is the same , i.e., electronic transitions from higher to lower energy states. The mode of electron excitement is different, however, as well as the spectral distribution of radiation. Incandescent solid substances basically emit a continuous spectrum, while gaseous discharges radiate mainly in discrete spectral lines, however there is some overlapping. Incandescent rare earth elements can emit lines, whereas high pressure discharge produces a continuous spectrum".

LIGHT - QUOTATIONS

We owe a lot to Thomas Edison - if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlelight. (Milton Berne)
Many a man has fallen in love with a girl, in a light so dim, he would not have chosen a suit by it. (Anon)
And GOD said "Let there be light", and there was light, and GOD saw that is was good, and put the bloody electricity bill up by 4 pence a unit. (Anon)
The weight of moonlight on the oceans causes the water to spread out to the edges of the land. (G.E. Last, 19th Century)
The Speed of light is very fast. (Carl Sagan)
Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night, God said, "Let Newton be," and all was light. (Anon)
Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. (Thomas Alva Edison)
All art is quite useless. (Oscar Wilde)
No great artist ever sees things as they are. If he did he would cease to be an artist. (Oscar Wilde)
She is like most artists; she has style without sincerity. (Oscar Wilde)
Writing about art is like dancing about architecture. (Anon)
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright --
And this was very odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
(Lewis Carroll)
We will have solar energy as soon as the utility companies solve one technical problem -- how to run a sunbeam through a meter. (Anon)

CROSS REFERENCE

    CENTER         - also try: CENTRE    (for British  references)
      CENTRE         - also try: CENTER    (for American references)
      COLOR          - also try: COLOUR    (for British  references)
      COLOUR         - also try: COLOR     (for American references)
      THEATER        - also try: THEATRE   (for British  references)
      THEATRE        - also try: THEATER   (for American references)
      QUARTZ HALOGEN - also try: TUNGSTEN HALOGEN

    BLACKLIGHT     - see:      ULTRAVIOLET and UV

    BLACK BODY     - see:      BLACKBODY

    BLACK LIGHT    - see:      ULTRAVIOLET

    CAMERA         - see:      PHOTOGRAPHY, CAMERA OBSCURA

    FIXTURE        - see:      LUMINAIRE/LEKO/FRESNEL/ELLIPSOIDAL

    FLOOD LIGHT    - see:      FLOODLIGHT

    FOLLOW SPOT    - see:      FOLLOWSPOT

    FOOT CANDLE    - see:      FOOTCANDLE

    FOOT LIGHT     - see:      FOOTLIGHT

    GREECE         - see:      GREEK

    LANTERN        - see:      LUMINAIRE/LEKO/FRESNEL/ELLIPSOIDAL

    LIGHT HOUSE    - see:      LIGHTHOUSE

    LIGHT YEAR     - see:      LIGHTYEAR

    LIME LIGHT     - see:      LIMELIGHT

    MAGIC LANTERN  - see:      LATERNA MAGICA

    PHOTO CELL     - see:      PHOTOCELL

    PROFILE SPOT   - see:      ELLIPSOIDAL REFLECTOR

ROME           - see:      ROMAN

LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY (1848-1933) Louis Comfort Tiffany, one of the most creative and prolific designers of the late 19th century, declared that his life-long goal was "the pursuit of beauty." With its comprehensive assemblage of Tiffany's work, the Morse Museum's collection uniquely documents that quest. Although his father, Charles Lewis, had founded the most prestigious silver and jewelry company in America, Louis chose another professional direction. Originally trained as a painter, he began studying the chemistry and techniques of glassmaking when he was 24. He developed this interest as a partner in the firm of Louis C. Tiffany and Associated Artists, which in its four years of operation (1879-1883) provided innovative interior decoration for clients ranging from Mark Twain in Hartford, Connecticut to President Chester Arthur at the White House. In 1885 Tiffany established his own firm and while he continued to undertake decorating commissions, his focus was on new methods of glass manufacture. Four years earlier he had registered a patent for opalescent window glass, a radical new treatment whereby several colors were combined and manipulated to create an unprecedented range of hues and three-dimensional effects. Tiffany believed that this new material allowed more fidelity to the inherent nature of the medium, because it enabled form to be defined by the glass itself rather than by painting onto the glass. Opalescent glass, however, was firmly rejected by the other important school of the stained glass revival, which advocated the Gothic tradition of painting with enamel on clear, uniformly colored "antique" glass. The passionate moral dimension of late 19th-century taste is clearly seen in Boston glassmaker Charles Connick's declaration that his firm's greatest contribution to stained glass was "rescuing it from the abysmal depth of opalescent picture windows." Those, like Connick , who followed the medieval precedent of painting on clear glass, were in bitter opposition to Tiffany and to John La Farge, the artist who had developed opalescent glass about the same time as Tiffany, and was his chief competitor. VASE, 1919 Luster glass with iridized decoration Tiffany Studios (79-529) Both schools thought that they alone were being "truthful," an ideal central to the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement. Equally important was the goal of design unity. First manifested in his efforts to create complete interiors, Tiffany's commitment to unity was extended to the design and manufacture of stained glass. The leading necessary to hold the pieces of glass together became a fully integrated design element, simulating, for example, the stems of plants. And Tiffany was convinced that the actual production of a stained-glass window required the artist's involvement at every stage, even in a factory setting-from creating the first sketches to overseeing how the glass was selected, cut and assembled. Tiffany's aesthetic was based on his conviction that nature should be the primary source of design inspiration. Intoxicated by color, he translated into glass the lush palette found in flowers and plants. This fascination with nature and with extending the capabilities of the medium led to the exploration of another technique-in 1893 Tiffany introduced his first blown-glass vases and bowls, called "Favrile," whose name, he declared, was taken from an old English word for hand made. Favrile glass quickly gained international renown for its surface iridescence and brilliant colors. AUTUMN FROM THE FOUR SEASONS, 1892 Leaded-glass window Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (57-019) Tiffany was among the first American designers to be acclaimed abroad. Favrile glass, together with stained-glass windows such as the "Four Seasons", was shown at world's fairs and sold in galleries like Siegfried Bing's L'Art Nouveau, which served as a conduit for the most innovative design at the turn of the century. In the United States, Tiffany continued to execute special commissions for stained glass and glass mosaics. Much of this work was for churches, whose patronage Tiffany often put at risk because of his strong preference for landscapes instead of traditional religious figural scenes. He also expanded his more commercial activities and established a metalwork department, producing lamps, desk sets and chandeliers that were sold in the thousands through his own New York showroom, company catalogues and department stores. More personalized expressions continued as well: In 1898 Tiffany began experimenting with enamels, in 1900, with a line of pottery and by 1904, with designs for jewelry. While glass is the most significant medium in which Tiffany worked, he designed, fabricated or sold everything that made up an interior, including furniture, textiles and wall coverings. A desire to create a unified artistic expression culminated in the last house he designed in its entirety-his own. Laurelton Hall, in Oyster Bay, Long Island, was completed in 1904, and the Morse Museum is the greatest repository of Tiffany furniture, stained glass, mosaic work and architectural elements from this masterpiece. COBWEB LIBRARY LAMP, No. L146, c. 1900 Leaded glass, mosaic, and bronze Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (62-020) Tiffany's work reflects the efforts to resolve the conflicting ideals of the Arts and Craft movement. William Morris, its English protagonist, had demanded: "What business have we with art at all unless all can share it?" Yet most companies could not produce affordable art for the home while retaining high standards and individual expression. Tiffany, however, successfully created an art industry. He triumphed where others had failed because his personal fortune allowed him to sacrifice company profits in the interests of artistic achievement. In addition, he provided an extraordinary range of products, so that consumers at almost every economic level had access to his religion of beauty. The visitor to the Morse Museum is invited to examine what a critic in 1900 called Tiffany's "dumbfounding versatility": from the lamps that were made in the thousands to the unique windows executed for special commissions or for the artist's own use.