George W. Patterson and His Electric Indian Clubs
Posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2018 by John Wood
Mr. George W. Patterson, of Chicago, Illinois, was an avid Indian Club swinger who was also an engineer. One day he had an interesting idea: to devise a means of attaching electric lights to his clubs whilst swinging them in a darkened theatre, thus producing a number of interesting patterns. The clubs were of special construction with the current supplied by flexible wires enclosed in a rubber tube. Three series of eight, three, and one candle power colored lamps are set in sockets in the club at right angles to the center of the clubs, which are split lengthwise. At the tip of each club is a 32-candle-power lamp. When current is not otherwise available (which was often the case in these days — the early 1900’s) a large portable storage battery furnished the necessary power.