Antique lightbulbs found in library

Tag : Filament Transformer

for The Hawk Eye

It's such a commonplace act. A switch is thrown, current flows, andthere is light.

But in the 1890s, an electric lightbulb was anything butcommonplace; gas lights were the source of most interior buildingillumination.

This posed a dilemma to the builders of the Burlington PublicLibrary in 1898. Should they wire the town's showplace publicbuilding for newfangled and unproven electricity or should theystay with what was proven and pipe the building for gas lights?

The library board took the only safe option. They did both, andwhen the FreePublic Library -- a happy mix of classical,Renaissance Revival and Pre-Prairie School architecture -- opened,it boasted both gas and electric lights.

That was just one of the construction oddities illuminated by WillThomson, an Iowa City-based consultant assisting the Des MoinesCounty Historical Society in recreating the unused old publiclibrary building into the new Des Moines County Museum. Thomsonheads Armadillo Arts, which is designing and coordinating theconstruction of the exhibits for the museum.

Thomson's duties include prowling the nooks and crannies of the oldbuilding to determine its condition, and during one of theseinspection forays, he opened a little-used door that gave himaccess to a small balcony suspended above the main reading room.

"We already knew that many of the old light fixtures were set upfor both and gas and electricity, but when I stepped out on thatbalcony, I saw two highly ornamental brass wall sconces. I ooked inthem, and I could see light bulbs and thought that this was fairlyunusual because the last time these lights were turned on wasprobably 1906 or so," Thomson said.

"I had someone toss me a rag and cleaning solution because thebulbs were so covered in dust, and when I got them cleaned off, Iwas really surprised by what they were. Back then, an electriclightbulb like this was technology that would excite people, so tosee thisfunctioning bulb gives you some idea of what people musthave felt when they saw their first electric light. It was apparentthat about 100 years ago they cut off the power to the balcony, andno one ever went back out there to get the bulbs, so we have themtoday."

The old ibrary lights were hand-blown glass envelopes with a tipshowing where the glass blower had detached the bulb. Inside was asingle filament loop, and at the base was an open-threaded metalring held in place by plaster. The bulb is the Thompson-Halstondesign and was one of six direct current bulbs then in use.

"These old bulbs could not have been made after 1906, at thelatest," Thomson said, "and they are direct current as opposed totoday's alternating current. When the library was being built,Thomas, Edison and Westinghouse were locked in a fight on the useof alternating versus direct current. The Edison bulbs were directcurrent, but the electricity could only be transmitted about sixmiles, and Westinghouse beat Edison out. But here we have some olddirect current bulbs and a little bit of history."

Thomson has cleaned the old library bulbs and built a fixture andtransformer to accommodate them, and there are plans to put them ondisplay at the new museum. When current flows to the singlefilament, it glows with a warm orange color. While museum visitorsmay be able to view these industrial artifacts, other features ofthat 1890s construction will have to remain hidden.

They include the brass speaking tubes that once connected thevarious levels of the public library and remain hidden in thebuilding's thick walls. The tubes had a whistle built into theircaps, so when someone wished to use them, they blew the whistle toattract the person on the other end before they began to speak.

Another hidden feature of the building at Fourth and Columbiastreets is an early attempt at air conditioning the building.Beneath the basement subfloor are a series of brick channels thatdraw the air from outside the building and into a series ofchimneys. This cool air could then be moved into the library'spublic rooms.

These attempts at incorporating the various latest technologiesinto the construction of the old library speak to the care andpride the community lavished on the original 1898 building and aretoday reflected by the effort of the historical society to reopenthe facility in 2009 to serve the county for yet another 100-plusyears.