Walter D'Arcy Ryan

Walter D'Arcy Ryan
Ryan in 1917
Born(1870-04-17)April 17, 1870
Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada
DiedMarch 14, 1934(1934-03-14) (aged 63)
Schenectady, New York, US
EmployerLighting engineer
OrganizationGeneral Electric
Lighting at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, 1915, designed by Ryan, including the Scintillator searchlight display

Walter D'Arcy Ryan (Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada, April 17, 1870 – Schenectady, New York, US, March 14, 1934) was an influential early lighting engineer who worked for General Electric as director of its Illuminating Engineering Laboratory. He pioneered skyscraper illumination, designed the Scintillator colored searchlights display, and was responsible for the lighting of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, in addition to the first complete illumination of Niagara Falls. He combined illumination into both an art and a science.[1]

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