The party lasted into the night, but when everyone left the building, it still looked as if it was the middle of the day. Throughout the exposition’s grounds were 125-foot-high towers that held giant, newly invented electric “arc lamps,” each of which emitted “36,000 candlepower.” They created so much light that the exposition’s visitors literally could see blades of grass on the lawn. The Austin visitors were impressed, but for many of them, the lamps appeared to be more like a pointless curiosity than a helpful invention. Why, they asked, would anyone want to go to such expense to light up a
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