EIFFEL TOWER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 40, 17 February 1937, Page 6

EIFFEL TOWER.

FLAG FOR 1937 EXHIBITION

After having served as a radio broadcasting station, a clock and a thermometer( it etill perforins all these duties), the Eiffel Tower will be transformed, during 1037. into a jriant flay- proiiably the bi{r<je.«t tricolour in the

world —in connection with the International Exhibition of Arts and CraiH which opens it* jfiifet next May.

The Eiffel Tower was the L'ift to Vail* of the 1SS!) exhibition. From MU4 on it was con-f-cripled for- war service as a wireles< station. For more than a decade now it has curved to advertise a well-known French automobile. and within recent years it lias a-*umed the duty of telling the time and indicating the temperature during the evening hours, and it« concerts are known to all wireless enthusiast!*.

But when the 1!»37 Exhibition opens it will ongago in a new duty; it will lx> changed into "Flag Tower.' , and each night it will give the impression of being an electrical flag, in red. white and blue, flapping its folds ill the night winds. The lirst storey of thp tower will be illuminated in nil the colours of the ">0 participating nations.

To four "artists in electricity" has been entrusted the task of performing thin miracle each night, aided by the latest devices of electrical science. In fact the Eiffel Tower hae already done considerable rehearsing, and the rehe.irnnl* will continue until it has completely in aster e<l its pieturwqne role. Each night it will be the princiflal actor in a goodnight ceremony at th<» exhibition, accompanied by music written by Igor Stravinsky. Arthur Honrieger. Klorent Selimitt and orher«.

First the tower will appear as a giant elm ft of silver piercing the sky. Then it will he- surrounded by sbadowV clouds of colour, in every hue of tile rainlxiw. A cataract of fireworks will }m» set off. lxith vertically and horizontally, from it« summit. Finally, the climax will cr>me a* the tower i? transformed into a grandiose French flag, while appropriate French airs are played by orchestras and bands below, end transmitted by loud-speakers to thousands of admiring spectators. The Eiffel Tower will become a 'Cathedral of L,ight." Indeed one of the dritie* to whom the exhibition is dedicated will be the goddess of light. The lighting effects will be one of it* lnost attractive featured. They will be varied and manifold, consisting of under-water illuminations (in the waters of the Seine), vari shape*} lamp*, searchlights of unusual strength, jets of steam changing colour every minute, and vaporous clouds of many hues.