I’m a young intern working in the development of a feature film focusing on the life of an artist (it’s a biopic, let’s not specify whose) that spent part of his life in Paris. I’m in charge of researching mainly visual references and historic contexts. A few days ago, I’ve been asked to gather information on a subject that has been a bit complicated for me, being critical for the film’s veracity as it is, so I thought maybe this would be the right place to find someone who is an expert and is willing to help.
Parisian street lighting
Was gas lighting the absolute norm? Do you know what gas was used? And what color the flame was (more yellow, more orange)? Or was electric lighting the norm?
Parisian domestic lighting
Take into account that what I’m interested in is the artistic circle (Picasso, Modigliani…). So, not exactly poor but also not super rich. What was the common lighting method? Oil, gas, electricity? Were lighting fixtures attached to the walls/ceiling or did they use portable lamps? If you have any photos or drawing of lighting fixtures it would be amazing!
Eiffel Tower
Interested in 1917 specifically. After the 1900 Universal Exhibition, did the Eiffel Tower maintain it’s night lighting? Was the night-sparkling-show already a thing?
(Did it look like this every night? https://cdn.pariscityvision.com/library/image/5166.jpg
Or were there visible changes? Were these lights white or did it have colors?)
I’ve read that in 1907 a six-meter tall giant clock was installed on the second floor. Was it still there in 1917? Any photos?
Hope this isn’t too long of a doubt list….
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your work, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions to aid researchers, based on past experience: some have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.
