City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

NOTES TO PAGES 17–21 281
pp. 325–326. In a brief introduction, editor Gaston Tissandier says he requested
the paper. Translated as Daniel Colladon, ‘‘The Colladon Fountain,’’ Scientific
American, Dec. 6, 1884, p. 359.
22. That was a large sum in the 1880s. Andrew A. Gillies, ed., Report of the
Executive Committee, Royal Jubilee Exhibition Manchester 1887 (John Heywood,
Manchester, 1888, p. 189).
23. Charles John Galloway and John Henry Beckwith, British Patent 1460,
‘‘An improvement in illuminated fountains,’’ filed Jan. 29, 1887, accepted Nov.
8, 1887.
24. Official Guide to the Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester 1887 (John Heywood,
Manchester, 1887, p. 9).
25. Perilla Kinchin and Juliet Kinchin, Glasgow’s Great Exhibitions (White
Cockade Publishers, 1988); quoted in letter to author from Glasgow City Library
dated Dec. 5, 1995.
26. ‘‘Glasgow International Exhibition,’’ The Electrician 21, June 29, 1888,
pp. 239–241.
27. Although he obviously paid attention to the illuminated fountains, he lists
the wrong dates for the British exhibitions. He puts Glasgow in 1884, followed
by London and Manchester, and does not mention other European fairs with great
fountains, such as one held in Barcelona in 1888. Jean-Daniel Colladon, Souvenirs
et Memoires, Autobiographie Aubert-Schuchardt, Geneva, 1893, p. 289).
28. Napoli, ‘‘The luminous fountains.’’
29. G. Bechmann, ‘‘Fontaine Lumineuse,’’ Le Grand Encyclopedie: Vol. 17
Fanum-Franco Lamirault, Paris, 1886–1902 p. 733). It includes the clearest drawings
I have found of vertical and parabolic fountains.
30. Nye, Electrifying America (pp. 38–39).
31. Woodward Hudson, ‘‘William Wheeler, December 6, 1851–July 1, 1932,’’
Social Circle Memoirs (Social Circle, Concord, Mass., pp. 331ff). Clark was a colorful
and controversial figure whose shorter stay left him a legend in Japan. See Robert
H. Guest, ‘‘The rise and fall of an Amherst immortal,’’ Amherst, Summer 1983,
pp. 66–67, 78–79.
32. William Wheeler, US Patent 247,229, ‘‘Apparatus for lighting dwellings
or other structures,’’ filed Dec. 10, 1880, granted Sept. 20, 1881.
33. Ibid., p. 1, ll. 27–40.
34. Wheeler served as company president, per state records; he also was an
engineering consultant. A leading citizen of Concord, he moved in the same social
groups as the intellectual Emerson family, and was deeply involved in town government,
until shortly before his death in 1932. The Story of Massachusetts: Personal
and Family History (Vol. 4: The American Historical Society, New York,
1938, pp. 129–132). Wheeler Reflector was still advertising in the Oct. 1958 issue
of The American City (p. 143).
35. ‘‘A new method of illuminating internal organs,’’ The Lancet, Jan. 5, 1889,
p. 52; the same brief note was reprinted in Scientific American 60, p. 14 (Apr. 6,
1889). The original Lancet piece is by-lined Vienna, Dec. 1888. The two men were
identified only as ‘‘Dr. Roth and Professor Reuss.’’
36. David D. Smith, US Patent 624,392, ‘‘Surgical lamp,’’ filed Apr. 25, 1898,
issued May 2, 1899. At least two similar patents were issued many years later:
Isaac J. Smit, US Patent 1,246,338, ‘‘Illuminated transparent retractor,’’ filed Aug.
21, 1916, issued Nov. 13, 1917; Frank G. Young, Jr., US Patent 1,246,338,
‘‘Light projector,’’ filed Mar. 26, 1926, issued Sept. 13, 1927.