The Arcades Project - Operi

ing prosaic and ghostly illumination large insects are busily moving about: shopkeepers."
Egon Friedell Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit, vol. 3 (Munich 1931),
p. 86. [Tla,lO]
On the Cafe Mille et Vne Nuits: 'Everything there was of an unprecedented magnificence.
In order to give you a sense of it it will suffice to say that the beautiful
limonadiere had for her seat at the counter, . . . a throne a veritable royal
throne, on which one of the great potentates of Europe had sat in all his majesty.
How did this throne get to be there? We could not say; we affirm the fact without
undertaking to explain it." Histoire des cafes de Paris, extraite des mellwires d'un
v':venr (Paris, 1857), p. 31. [T la,ll]
"Gas has replaced oil gold has dethroned woodwork, billiards has put a stop to
dominoes and backgammon. Where one formerly heard only the buzzing of flies,
one now listens to the melodies of Verdi or Aubert." Histoire des cafes de Paris,
extraite des memoires d'un vi-veur (Paris, 1857), p. 114. [T2,1]
Grand Cafe du XIX" Siecle-opens 1857 on the Boulevard de Strashourg. "The
green felt tops of numerous billiard tables can be seen there; a splendid counter is
illuminated by gas jets. Directly opposite is a white marble fountain, on which the
allegorical subject is crowned hy a luminous aureole. " llistoire des cafes de Paris,
extraite des memoires d'un villeur (Paris, 1857), p. Ill. [T2,2]
"As early as 1801, Lebon had attempted to install gas lighting at the Hotel
Seignelay, 47 Rue Saint-Dominique. The system was improved at the beginning of
January 1808: three hundred gas jets lit up the Hospital of Saint-Louis, with such
success that three gas-jet factories were huilt." Lucien Dubech and Pierre
d'Espezel, Histoire de Pa,ris (Paris, 1926), p. 335. [T2,3]
"In matters of municipal administration, the two great works of the Restoration
were gas lighting and the creation of omnibuses. Paris was illuminated in 1814 by
5,000 street lamps, serviced by 142 lamplighters. In 1822, the government decided
that streets would be lit by gas in proportion as the old contracts came due. On
June 3, 1825, the Compagnie du Gaz Portatif Fran9ais undertook, for the first
time, to light up a square: the Place Vendome received four multiple-jet street
lamps at t.he corners of the column and two street lamps at the corners of the Rue
de Castiglione. In 1826, there were 9,000 gas burners in Paris; in 1828 there were
10,000, with 1,500 suhscribers, three gas companies, and four gas-jet factories,
one of which was on the Left Bank." Dubech and d'Espezel, Histoire de Paris,
p. 358. [T2,4]
From an eighteenth-century prospectus, Lighting Project, Proposed by Strnscription
for Decorating the Famous Thoroughfare of the Boulevard Saint­
Antoine" : "The Boulevard will be illuminated by a garland of Lanterns that will
extend on both sides between the trees. This illumination will take place twice