A&I Walls Repaired, Arc Lamps Installed
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PrintBy early April, repairs to the walls of the Arts and Industries Building are completed. Cracked plaster and peeling paint are repaired. Arc lamps are installed in each of the eight arches surrounding the rotunda (four into the hallways, four over the stairways). The lamps are brass, steel and blown glass, and were created by Manitou Machine Works in Cold Spring, N.Y., working with the National Museum of American History's Bernard S. Finn, and are reproductions of the type of arc lights popular when A&I was built. These lights are not made up of carbon rods like conventional arc lights, but are on rheostats so they may be turned low to conserve energy.
Chronology of Smithsonian History
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 3, "The Torch," May 1981, p. 6.
Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu
April, 1981