II

       THE LAMPLIGHTER'S BABY

 THE baby lens. a piece of apparatus that is almost
indispensable, and now used in nearly every dramatic production,
was originally a product of my own necessity. In this lamp I
combined several pieces of apparatus then in common use as
separate units. In brief, it was a lens box housing an
incandescent lamp that had a concentrated filament. Each unit was
fitted with a dimmer so that I could control the amount of light
in easy stages from full brilliancy to out. They were the first
lens lamps that could be placed anywhere on the scene.
 We generally hung them back of the drapery border and on the
back of the plush tormentors (1) where special pipe racks were
fastened to hold them. The dimmers that controlled the lamps were
hung on the plush tormentor racks, which position gave the
operator a good view of the stage. The tormentor itself was
constructed with a movable section about eight inches wide hinged
to it. This section was used for masking and could be set at any
angle. To kill reflections on the return wing, I used, on each
lamp, a tube about six

(1)The tormentors are the adjustable masking-pieces, just inside
the proscenium arch, with which the stage setting is framed for
the spectator's eye. They are the side pieces; the drapery border
is the top.

inches long, attached to the hood in front of the lens. The tube
was painted black inside to avoid reflections in it from the
lens.


LENS LAMP TYPES
 A is a 500-watt baby lamp with a five-inch lens, on a stand; B
is another baby type with a two and one-half inch lens and using
a 100 candle power lamp; C indicates a lamp to light the face of
a character from the foots, using a one and one-half inch lens
and a 100 candle power bulb; D is a 250-watt "midget" type for
use in small spaces, with a two and one-half by five inch focus
lens; E is another 250-watt variety with a four and one-half inch
lens; F and G are also 250-watt types, the former having a one
and one-half inch lens, and the latter being a reflector with
louvres.

 Setting these sources of light so that they were concealed at
all times was not always easy, especially if the scene was in
semidarkness and the players were seated around a table with the
light supposedly coming from a lamp hanging over the table. An
instance of this. among many examples that might be cited from
the numerous plays in which this same situation occurs, is in the
second act of "The Girl of the Golden West." To conceal the rays
the diffused light from the ceiling strip must be balanced with
the light of the lens lamp. The ceiling strip for this purpose
need not be long. The type I use is made up of small glass
reflectors; and it can be adjusted so the light diffuses in a
small area without striking the scene. The strip uses a 25-watt,
round, "ball" lamp. It does not take up, much hanging space and
is easily masked behind the straight drapery.
 This baby lens gave us many advantages which me could not
procure theretofore. We could place the high lights from better
angles, notably when interior settings were used; and certain
portions of the room could be accentuated with light, relieving
the flat look produced by the diffused illumination from the
footlights and ceiling strip. The shadow cast by the light from
the baby lens, provided the lens was set properly to simulate
light from the supposed natural source, seemed right. Shadows
produced by obviously natural lights are not distracting or
obtrusive, especially if they are in a downward direction.
 The original lamp I used was rated at fifty candle power and had
a spiral filament. At that time it seemed quite brilliant in
contrast with the other lights. To-day the same lamp is used in
therapeutics as a heat unit in the Thermolite. When this was
placed on the market it was years since I had seen one; and out
of curiosity I purchased a specimen. When I saw it lighted I
wondered how I ever could have considered it brilliant, as its
light was yellow and dingy-looking. Yet, in the beginning, it
took hard missionary work to persuade manufacturers that there
was a market for a concentrated filament lamp of high candle
power.
 The lamp manufacturers were in the business to make money. They
had to be pretty thoroughly convinced that sales would warrant
the expenditure necessary to develop it. I do not think they ever
had cause to regret their decision. Thousands are used to-day.
The 2,000 watt lamp with a concentrated filament is now in common
use for many purposes.
 At the time of which I speak the theatre was not given all the
consideration now bestowed. Most tradesmen and manufacturers
looked upon it as a sort of "fake" business where childish things
were done. It was all right in its way, they said; but they did
not understand its art nor its possibilities. As a commercial
proposition they did not consider it seriously.
 The idea of the baby lens was the first decided innovation in
modern stage lighting. It produced results radically different
from those previously known. To get such results took time and
extensive training for the men who manipulated the new system.
Operators had to become familiar with it. It was not any easy
matter at first to keep as many as thirty separate units of
concentrated light in perfect balance throughout a scene in which
illumination had to be varied--for instance, changes from
afternoon to night at which time chandeliers or lamps were
lighted. And each of these new units had its complement of baby
lenses.
 Every unprecedented system requires some tentative method as a
building basis. Ours was this: the scene was lighted first with
the foots and the ceiling strip; and if there was a window in the
scene, this was lighted and balanced with the interior lighting.
Then the baby lenses were set, directed on various objects and
portions of the setting and balanced on the individual dimmers
until the room assumed a pleasing and seemingly natural effect.
 In balancing the light, the intensity of the foots and ceiling
strip would have to be varied several times either up or down to
keep a proper relationship between the diffused and the
concentrated light. Up to this time no attention was paid to the
lighting of the actors' faces so that when the players came into
the scene more baby lenses usually had to be added and some of
the others shifted and rebalanced. But all this was eventually
accomplished without destroying the verisimilitude of the scene.
 In setting the baby lenses we tried to keep that side of the
actor's face that was toward the source of light the brightest.
By the source, I mean as coming from a window or: a lamp. This
required exceptional balance. Rembrandt effects may look all
right in a painting; but on the stage they distort the features,
while the constant movement does not lend itself to exaggerated
shadings. As the player walked toward the light that came from
the baby lenses on the tormentors, they would have to be dimmed
imperceptibly to keep the same degree of light as when he stood
at a distance. If a chandelier or lamp was lighted, its
complement of baby lenses had to be brought up at the same time.
 Some producers who have tried to use this system have used it
more as a form of spot lighting. They would set the babies for a
scene, generally using an insufficient number of them, so that it
became necessary to fix the actor's position to the relation of
the light. David Belasco would not move an actor an inch to
adjust him to a mechanical effect, maintaining that the mechanics
should he used to aid the actor, not to hamper him--which they
certainly do if he has to be continually conscious of them.
 One of the reasons that stage lighting will never become a
slide-rule proposition is that it involves too many interrelated
factors. The status of these relations can be worked out only by
experiment, irrespective of how long we have labored and studied,
or what past experience has taught us. Knowledge acquired by
experience is a great asset if we use it to guide improvement and
new development; but if we try to use it as a standard or formula
it is apt to hold us back. Repetition is bad in the theatre, and
should be avoided as much as possible.
 The baby lenses having proved a success, we turned our attention
to a better form of overhead lighting for exteriors. This took
some time, as the tungsten filament was still very fragile. Even
dusting a tungsten lamp was shock enough to break the filament,
and, of course, this made it unsuitable for stage work. By
investigation, and by keeping in touch with new developments, I
found that a sturdy filament could be made for a low voltage. But
the voltage we had in the theatre was the standard throughout the
city--120 volts.
 I had some lamps made up and tried them out. The filaments were
in a G. 40 bulb. The lamp was rated at two hundred candle power,
and as the lamp was


SPECIAL INCANDESCENTS
 In the middle and at left are the first tungsten filament lamps
of high intensity employed for theatrical use. The example at
right is a double base lamp with concentrated filaments, rated at
100 candle power at six volts. It is of especial interest in
being the special form devised for illuminating the faces of
actors in "The Return of Peter Grimm."

made for sixty volts, I used two in series. I joined four in a
hood, and the light was so brilliant in comparison with the other
lamps we had, especially the border lights, that the regulars
looked like a row of fireflies. So at last we had a light of a
high intensity that was diffusive, soft in quality, and that
could be controlled by dimmers. We had the privilege of exclusive
use of this lamp for a period of two years.
 Then the 1,000-watt lamp was placed on the market. Theatre
electricians took the burners out of their olivette boxes,
replaced them with Mogul sockets, and in a short time these hoods
practically replaced the border lights. In some instances so many
such units were used that the scenery was virtually burned up
with light. Quantity and not quality was the result. It was the
same reasoning as that fallacy by which it is supposed that
because one spoonful of medicine is effective, the entire bottle,
taken at once, must be even more so. Only failure to understand
first principles leads people to do things of this kind.
 Such lighting, using an excessive number of units, made the
diffused light so brilliant that any accompanying lamp used for
high lighting was not strong enough to make its presence felt. To
meet this new condition the amperage of the lens lamp had to be
increased. Where lens lamps using thirty amperes were previously
considered efficient, lamps employing as high as one hundred
amperes were now used; but even these did not give the amount of
brilliancy that some thought was required.
 Over-lighting of this kind cannot bring good results. For the
audience to look long at extreme illumination causes eyestrain.
The eye is then subjected to a much higher vibration than is
considered normal, and, naturally, tires quickly.
 Artificial light is not like daylight, the quality and effect of
which we cannot hope to imitate merely by multiplying candle
power. The effect for stage purposes must be produced by a
balance and harmony of light and color that seems natural,
possibly without being an absolute counterfeit. After all, as
long as results please the eye, they are generally accepted as
natural, even though they may tend to exaggeration when
contrasted directly with those we find in nature, or with those
that are produced without studied effort under household lamps,
for instance.