Clipping:Night games by gaslight
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| Date | Wednesday, August 29, 1888 |
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| Text | [from the Indianapolis columnist] The Indianapolis management has experimented and is satisfied that base ball can be played at night by gas light, and it will be tried when the club gets back home, probably with Chicago. President Brush has been investigating the idea for some time and finally concluded that it would work. The first test was made on Tuesday night and was so successful that it was at once decided to carry the scheme into effect. That it will be a go is conceded on all sides. The test was made with only two lights. They were located along the centre field fence about thirty yards apart, being between thirty and forty feet high, having a cross-bar at the top like that on telegraph poles, and about the same length. This cross-piece has burners on the upper side, about six inches apart, and when the gas is turned on it makes a solid flame, say four feet long. These two burners along made the park perfectly light, and a ball could be seen as well as if it had been daytime. Nearly all of the home players were there, together with two or three hundred other people, and the experiment was pronounced a grand success. Balls were batted high into the air and could be seen without the slightest difficulty, while grounders could be handled with perfect safety. A new ball was tried and then an old one, but the result was the same. Batter stood at the home plate and knocked balls all over the field, and they were caught with ease. The players all said it would be a god, and Manager Spence, who has had some doubt about the success of the scheme, admitted that there was no reason why ball could not be played at night as well as in daytime in Indianapolis. The light is perfectly steady and free from shadows. The gas company is at work fixing things and the other lights will be put up to-morrow or next day. It is the intention to put up sixteen, and if two furnished enough light to play ball by it can easily be imagined what sixteen will do. There will be four on each side of the park, two being on the grand stand. The Sporting Life August 29, 1888 The attempt to play ball by natural gas light will probably prove to be a failure. The park was illuminated this way last night, all the lights being in place, and the ball could not bee seen well at all. There was a wind blowing at the time, however, which interfered materially. Some changes will be made in the arrangement of the lights, and then it will be tried again. Indianapolis News September 6, 1888 At last Indianapolis admits that the natural gas experiment is a failure. Cleveland Plain Dealer September 19, 1888 |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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