but it produced a brighter flame and conducted less heat. The last burner that was experimented with was the Welsbach burner. Around this time the Bunsen burner was in use along with some forms of electricity. The Welsbach was based on the idea of the Bunsen burner, still using gas. A cotton mesh with cerium and thorium was imbedded into the Welsbach. This source of light was named the gas mantle; it produced three times more light than the naked flame. Several different instruments were used for stage lighting in the 19th century fell; these included footlights, border lights, groundrows, lengths, bunch lights, conical reflector floods, and limelight spots. These mechanisms sat directly on the stage, blinding the eyes of the audience. Footlights caused the actors' costumes to catch fire if they got too close. These lights also caused bothersome heat that affected both audience members and actors. Again, the actors had to adapt to these changes. They started fireproofing their costumes and placing wire mesh in front of the footlights. Border lights, also known as striplights, were a row of lights that hung horizontally in the flies. Color was added later by dying cotton, wool, and silk cloth. Lengths were constructed the same way as border lights, but mounted vertically in the rear where the wings were. Bunch lights were a cluster of burners that sat on a vertical base that was fueled directly from the gas line. The conical reflector can be related to the Fresnel lens used today. This adjustable box of light reflected a beam whose size could be altered by a barndoor. Limelight spots are similar to today's current spotlighting system. This instrument was used in scene shops, as well as the stage. Gas lighting did have some disadvantages. "Several hundred theatres are said to have burned down in America and Europe between 1800 and the introduction of electricity in the late 1800s. The increased heat was objectionable, and the border lights and wing lights had to be lighted by a long stick with a flaming wad of cotton at the end. For many years, an attendant or gas boy moved along the long row of jets, lighting them individually while gas was escaping from the whole row. Both actors and audiences complained of the escaping gas, and explosions sometimes resulted from its accumulation." These problems with gas lighting led to the rapid adoption of