The Arcades Project - Operi

"During this same period, the amount of street lighting more than doubled. Gas
was now used instead of oil. New street lamps took the place of the older apparatus,
and permanent lighting was substituted for intermittent lighting." M. Poete,
E. Clouzot, G. Henriot, L,a Transformation de Paris sous Ie Second Empire,
, p. 65 (Exposition de la Bibliotheque et des Travaux historiques de
la ville de Paris). [TI,71
On the ladies of the cash register: "All day long they go about in hair curlers and
dressing gown; after sundown, however, when the gas is lit, they make their appearance,
arrayed as for a ball. Seeing them, then, enthroned at the cashier's
desk, surrounded by a sea of light, one may well think back to The Blue Library2
and the fairy tale of the prince with golden hair and the enchanting princess, a
comparison the more admissible inasmuch as Parisian women enchant more than
they are enchanted." Eduard Kroloff, Schilderungen aus Paris (Hamburg, 1839),
vol. 2, pp. 76-77. [Tl,BI
The tin racks with artificial flowers, which can be found at refreshment bars iu
railroad stations, and elsewhere, are vestiges of the floral arrangements that
formerly encircled the cashieI: [TI,9]
Du Bartas called the sun " Grand Duke of Candles." Cited by M. Du Camp, Paris
(Paris, (875), vol. 5, p. 268. [r1,IO]
"The lantern carriers will have oil lanterns with 'six thick wicks'; they will be
stationed at posts, each one separated from the next by a distance of eight hundred
paces . ... They will have a tinted lamp hung above their post that will serve as a
beacon, and on their belts an hour glass of a quarter hour's duration, bearing the
shield of the city . ... Here, once again, it was a matter of empiricism; these wandering
lamps provided no security at all to the city, and the carriers beat up the
people they were accompanying on more than one occasion. Lacking anything
better, however, the city used them; and they were used so long that they were still
to be found at the beginning of the nineteenth century." Du Camp, Paris, vol. 5,
p. 275. [Tl,l1]
"They [the lantern carriers] would hail hackney cabs, would serve as crierescorts
for chauffeured carriages. and would accompany late-night passersby
right to their homes, coming up to their apartments and lighting the candles. Some
claim that these lantern carriers voluntarily gave accounts every morning to the
lieutenant general of police on what they had noticed during the night." Du Camp,
Puris, vol. 5, p. 281. [Tla,l]
"The patent of importation taken out by Winsor for Paris is dated December 1,
1815; in January 1817, the Passage des Panoramas was illuminated . ... The first
attempts by businesses were not at all satisfactory; the public seemed resistant. to