There is no place like ether

Here is a rare and spectacular photographic nighttime view of a powerful carbon arc searchlight shooting it beam over the illuminated Agricultural Building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.  It was also called the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, and it ran from May to October 1893 in Chicago—in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the new world.  Over 27 million people visited and viewed the fair’s brilliance in the numerous displays of the nineteenth-century world’s industrial progress during its six-month run.  Note the similarity between this carbon arc lamp’s beam pattern and the ones posted on the ancient Egyptian walls at the Temple at Denderah.

via Carbon Arc Searchlights.