New Plan for lighting theatres.
--At the two new theatres in the
Place de Chatelet — the Cirque and the
Theatre Lyrique — the first experiment was tried lately in a new system of lighting, by
M. Daviond.
The new made supersedes entirely the old chandelier, which was well enough in the days of
lamp oil.
The era of gas demands something better. "imagine," says a reporter for one of the journals, "imagine for the ceiling of the vast hail an immense ground glass occupying the whole of the cupola, behind this place say 1,500 gas-burners, and above them a sort of great white cap, serving as a reflector, and sending down the light.
This passes through the ground glass and falls like a soft rain over the entire ball, which it fills with a brilliant light, and yet which has nothing harsh or fatiguing to the eyes.
Not a single gas-burner is seen throughout the theatre, and yet it is lit up to its darkest corners.
You are able to read a paper on the last row of the parterre, which is, nevertheless, situated under the shadow of the balcony.
The light in the Lyrique is rather better than that in the Cirque.
The are delighted.
They say, ‘"Now we can see as well for our thirty sons as the rich people can for their ten "’
The toilettes of the women appear better than it was thought they would.
This is of less importance at the Cirque, which is especially a popular theatre.
The aristocratic boxes are not numerous, and the avant boxes have been impressed.
The spectacle is on the stage, and not in the hall.--But the
Theatre Lyrique is made for the beau monde.
The theatre which is building now on the square of the Conservatoire will endeavor to unite the old and the new system of lighting.
It has, like those of the
Place de Chatelet, its calling taken up with a vast number of lights which filled across a ground glass.
But there is added a system of chandeliers running around the cupola and burning in the open air.--
Paris paper. 
