| Main Performers | HRH The Prince of Wales,
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (Senior Vice-President of the Royal Albert Hall),
W H Preece Esq (Postal Telgraphic Department) - speakers |
| Secondary Performers | Organist
Mr Cotterall - apparatus demonstrator during W H Preece's lecture |
| Set List | 'God Save the Queen' (The National Anthem),
Official Opening (HRH Prince of Wales),
Lecture with Illustrations (W H Preece),
Thanks on Behalf of the Council of the Royal Albert Hall (HRH Duke of Edinburgh),
Private View of Electric Lighting Apparatus in Arena,
Organ Recital |
| Royal Presence | HRH The Prince of Wales,
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh,
HRH The Prince Christian,
HRH The Duke of Teck |
| Performance Notes | The following information was taken from The Times, 8 May 1879:
- The Royal party were seated on the stage to the right of the lecturer.
- A pamphlet was provided, written by Mr J N Shoolbred, which stated the object of the exhibition.
- The Arena seats were removed for the Exhibition to make way for electric lighting inventions and their inventors to demonstrate them to the public. The central displays were for viewing only but the lamps displayed at the edge of the Arena were in working order. Siemens's arrangement was fitted above the centre of the dome, and in the upper gallery there was a Jablochiroff lamp in each arch. The engines working the machines were housed at the west Arena entrance, the working electric machines were in the engine-room, those not working were in the Arena, alongside regulators, candles, incandescent lamps, specimens of carbons and photoetric apparatus for comparing the electric with other lights.
- There was also a collection of historical apparatus, with illustrations of many applications for electric lighting, such as for surgical and dental operations, and a collection of wires and cables.
- The Rt. Hon Lyon Playfair and Professor Tyndall were in attendance alongside several gentlemen distinguished in science.
- The lecturer alluded to the exhibition as the grandest of the kind ever put together.
"The Council of the Albert Hall, recognizing the wide interest in electrical lighting, have decided upon offering special facilities by which the leading scientific principles upon which the subject is based, as well as the distinctive differences of some of the methods which have been devised for its practical application, may be more extensively made known."
(The Times, 15 April 1879) |