ARTIFICIAL AURORA.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 11

ARTIFICIAL AURORA.

THE NAVY'S BRIGHT EYES. I GREAT SEARCHLIGHT DISPLAY SCREENED OX LOWERING CLOUDS. , . < One of the characteristics of Auckland ' which was particularly appreciated last night by the citizens of Nature's pet; 1 city is the fact that the contour of the i: country sets the harbour as in a basin, 1 giving and glimpses of the 1 water from innumerable eminences on j 1 land. And it is safe to say that every | ] lift of land or building that gave a i | prospect of the harbour was crowded as ! i i lias rarely been the case before when the j ! vessels of the Imperial Special Service 1 i Squadron turned tlieir searchlights loose i for half an hour in the darkness of a i I boisterous and stormy night for the j diversion of the populace. ( I The sky was heavily blanketed with ( rain-clouds, massed and pressed low by . a high wind- It was a night of ex- | i tremely low visibility, with the heavens . j a screen for the picture display of the 1 conquering electric beams. Promptly at [ 9 p.m. the Hood's . half-dozen searchlights sent forth the starting signal for a burst of flashes from the twenty-four bright eyes of the squadron. At once the lowered vault of the firmament was | the scene of chequered brilliance. Nearly j five thousand million candle-power of : light "was shot into the smothering darkness in long, compelling streams of luminant velocity from over a score of "widely divergent points. The rays from the large 3C-inch lamps of the i battle-cruisers, carrying 192 million candle-power behind them, ! stabbed the eye with an actual pain as they were focussed in a piercing beam directly on to the observer at a distance of a mile. It was like an Aurora Australia, foreshortened, concentrated, and in a controlled mood of savape fury, as the searchlights stabbed, flashed and wheeled ion cloud, land and water. Sometimes they settled with an almost hostile brilliance on some object which stood out starkly to the darkened world, again they rippled along the foreshore and water, and anon the beams shortened and lengthened at the will of the operator as though in inexorable search of some hidden foe. It was a magnificent i scene as the great beams of light were played at random round the city and harbour, and as a grand finale they were 1 thrown into the sky in criss-cross fshion. The spectacle, which was a ■wondrous novelty to New Zealanders, though it may have reI called memories of Zeppelin night attacks to the few who were in London during war time, was enhanced for | Aucklandcrs by the low-lying clouds. But there must have beett some disappoint- ' raent among , those who live a few miles distant from the city, and were baulked Jby the low visibility from getting a I reflected glimpse of the display; which a ' clear sky would have given them. Within j the town, Emily Place and Albert Park were the chief vantage points for the ! shopping crowd, and they were very thickly thronged with sight-seers. In Princes Street the space from Emily j Place to Waterloo Quadrant seemed to be the ilecca of all the motor cars in Auckland, and hundreds of the machines ■were parked across the street there, standing seven abreast in places.