Victory. One hundred and seventy-five
projectors were installed along the way on the roofs and in the windows
of office buildings. A brilliant, scintillating "Altar of Victory" was
erected at the center of the Way. It was composed of two enormous
candelabra erected one on each side of a platform ninety feet high.
These were studded with jewels and supported a curtain of jewels
suspended from the altar. In the center of the curtain was a huge
jeweled eagle bearing the Allied flags. This was illuminated by
arc-projectors which delivered 200,000,000 beam candle-power. In
addition to these there were many smaller projectors. In the top of each
candelabra six large red-and-orange lamps were installed in reflectors.
These illuminated live steam which issued from the top. Surmounting the
whole was a huge luminous fan formed by beams from large arc
search-lights. These are only a few of the many lighting effects which
welcomed the returning soldiers, but they illustrate how much modern
civilization depends upon artificial light for expressing its feelings
and emotions. Throughout all these festivals light silently symbolized
happiness, freedom, and advancement.

Projectors were used on a large scale in several cases before the advent
of the concentrated filament lamp. W. D'A. Ryan, the leader in
spectacular lighting, lighted the Niagara Falls in 1907 with batteries
of arc-projectors aggregating 1,115,000,000-beam candle-power. In 1908
he used thirty arc-projectors to flood the Singer Tower in New York with
light and projected light to the flag on top by means of a search-light
thirty inches in diameter. Many flags waved throughout the war in the
beams of search-lights, symbolizing a patriotism fully aroused. The
search-light beam as it bores through the atmosphere at night is usually
faintly bright, owing to the small amount of fog, dust, and smoke in the
air. By providing more "substance" in the atmosphere, the beams are made
to appear brighter. Following this reasoning, Ryan developed his
scintillator consisting of a battery of search-light beams projected
upward through clouds of steam which provided an artificial fog. This
was first displayed at the Hudson-Fulton celebration with a battery of
arc search-lights totaling 1,000,000,000-candle-power.

All these effects despite their magnitude were dwarfed by those at the
Panama-Pacific Exposition, and inasmuch as this up to the present time
represents the crowning achievement