A weather beacon is a beacon that indicates the local weather forecast in a code of colored or flashing lights. Often, a short poem or jingle accompanies the code to make it easier to remember. [1] [2]
The beacon is usually on the roof of a tall building in a central business district, but some are attached to towers. The beacons are most commonly owned by financial services companies and television stations and are part of advertising and public relations programs. They provide a very basic forecast for the general public and not as an aid to navigation.[ citation needed ]
In addition to displaying weather forecasts, some weather beacons have been used to signal victory or defeat for a professional sports home team.[ citation needed ]
In 1898 on the orders of U.S. President William McKinley, coastal warning display towers were installed along the coast of the United States. In 1936, the Weather Girl sculptures were installed in City Hall Square in Copenhagen. In 1938, Douglas Leigh designed a Coca-Cola billboard with a weather forecast display at Columbus Circle in New York City. [3]
The first attempt to create a weather beacon as a form of advertising was from Douglas Leigh, who, in 1941, arranged a lighting scheme for the Empire State Building to display a weather forecast code with a decoder to be packaged with Coca-Cola bottles. The plan was never implemented because of the attack on Pearl Harbor later that year. [4] Leigh resurrected his idea in Minneapolis in October 1949 with the Northwestern National Bank Weatherball. [5]
In Australia, the Mutual Life and Citizens insurance company installed weather beacons atop its buildings in 1957 and 1958. [6]
Weather beacons were most popular during the 1950s and 1960s.[ citation needed ]
52nd Street is a 1.9-mile-long (3.1 km) one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s.
The Gulf Tower is a 44-story, 177.4 m (582 ft) Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The tower is one of the major distinctive and recognizable features of the city and is named for the Gulf Oil Corporation.
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th or Roosevelt Road, depending on the source, and Randolph Streets and named after the nearby Lake Michigan. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 27, 2002. The district includes numerous significant buildings on Michigan Avenue facing Grant Park. This section of Michigan Avenue includes the eastern terminus of U.S. Route 66. The district is one of the world's best known one-sided streets rivalling Fifth Avenue in New York City and Edinburgh's Princes Street. It lies immediately south of the Michigan–Wacker Historic District and east of the Loop Retail Historic District.
The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day fire destroyed two buildings, covering an entire block of Downtown Minneapolis on November 25–26, 1982: the 16-story headquarters of Northwestern National Bank and the vacant, partially demolished location formerly occupied by Donaldson's department store, which had recently moved across the street to the new City Center mall. Nobody was injured or killed as a result of the fire, though 10 firefighters were treated at hospitals.
54th Street is a two-mile-long, one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan in New York City.
55th Street is a two-mile-long, one-way street traveling east to west across Midtown Manhattan.
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