A very pretty electrical effect has been introduced in the garden scene in “Faust.” Siebel, the would-be lover of Marguerite, advances to a bed of tulips, some red, some white, and some gold, to pluck a bouquet that he would leave upon her window to speak for him. Concealed in the corolla of each flower is an electric lamp. Now Mephistopheles had long before warned Siebel:
“Every flower that you touch
Shall rot and shall wither.”
But, unheeding, Siebel plucks a golden tulip which shines as he lifts it up to him. A fine wire which carries the current keeps the lamp aglow and is not seen as it trails along the foliage. No sooner does Siebel examine it than Mephistopheles, partly concealed, raises his hand; the current is cut off, and the flower grows dull and withers perceptibly.
“What, faded! Ah me!
Thus the Sorcerer foretold at the fair:
That should I touch a blooming flower,
It shall wither.
But my hand in holy water I’ll bathe—
See, now, will they wither?”
Then with his other hand he plucks a red tulip, a white and a golden one and holds them up triumphantly, each glowing with a rich light; for Mephistopheles may not raise his hand against the power of what has been blessed. Then he changes the flowers from one hand to the other, and instantly they fade; but they gleam again when, remembering it was with the other hand that he had touched the holy water, he transfers them back again. This beautiful illusion is easily produced.
THE BED OF ELECTRIC FLOWERS.
The electric firefly which has been used in the play of the “Kaffir Diamond” depends upon a somewhat similar device. Tiny incandescent lamps are affixed to the reeds and rushes in a swamp, each lamp being connected by means of a fine wire to a storage battery, through the medium of wires in a switchboard. Our [engraving] shows the manner of placing the lamp behind the weeds and rushes. The operator, in his hiding place, by pressing upon the keys of the switchboard, alternately lights up one and then another lamp, so that it would appear to be a single firefly darting hither and thither; or, by pressing a number of keys, any number up to a dozen or more could be lighted.
In “Die Walküre,” a red incandescent lamp is placed in a tin box which is painted so as to represent a knot in the tree. When the light is turned on, it causes a red glow on the hilt of the sword, and discovers it to be Siegmund.