Re: 1675 spotlight?

Christopher Jahn wrote...
> But theatre performances in 1675 were always held during the day, and all
> that you would need to creat a spot of light would be a mirror. Which
> they did use to focus light as far back as the Egyptians.

That's rubbish. Ingegnieri was advocating darkened auditoria as early as
1598. Sabattini discussed stage lighting techniques in his stage management
manual ("Practica") in 1638 - including a mechanism for mechanically dimming
candles. The German architect Furttenbach described a modern theatre design
incorporating orchestra pit and raked stage as early as 1628 and published
extensive decriptions of stage lighting equipment, including candle lanterns
incorporating reflectors and a mechanism for remotely blacking them out. In
England Inigo Jones made extensive use of stage lighting in lavish Court
Masques staged between 1605 and 1613 - he also built some of the earliest
modern indoor British theatres - including the Banqueting House (1622),
which is still in existence. There are early illustrations of the use of
chandeliers and footlights (candles or oil lamps) in stage productions in a
painting of the Comedie Francais from 1670 and an engraving used as the
frontispiece of a book of English comedies published in 1673.

Even the first lighting console was invented (by a French priest) as early
as 1734 - a "colour organ" based on a harpsichord keyboard although I have
no idea how it worked.

David



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