Yesterday as the polls closed and the votes were tallied, the active, voting citizenry were glued to their computer and television screens for the most up to the minute reports on the results.
But before the Internet, and before television and radio, people would actually wait for the morning edition of the paper to bear them such consequential news. But in the election of 1916, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle came up with an enterprising solution to these torturous wait-and-see-conditions. Their clever answer came with the assistance of the borough’s famous inventor, Elmer Sperry. One of many inventions of Sperry’s was the arc light. For election night the world’s most powerful searchlight, with a strength of 1,280,000,000 candlepower, was installed atop the Sperry Gyroscope Company’s building
on Flatbush Avenue Extension, near Manhattan Bridge Plaza.
The beam was so powerful that if used as a sunglass it could have set any building in New York on fire. The Eagle would relay presidential election results to the Sperry building, which would use the searchlight to announce them. If Woodrow Wilson (D) was leading there would be a continuous white shaft encircling the heavens. If Charles Hughes (R) was leading there would be an intermittent shaft encircling the heavens. The light would be visible for a distance of 75 miles. If at any time the election was in doubt no light would appear.
As to how the Eagle “broadcast” the results of the local election, see the illustration below of the Eagle building’s tower located atop its building on Washington Street at the S.E. corner of Johnson. In addition to the tower’s visual code signals, the Eagle set up a blackboard in front of their Washington Street building, or a telephone call to 6200 Main would bring results from the “Eagle Information Bureau.”
— Vernon Parker
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2009
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues. So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
