electrolier

plural electroliers

1. datedA fixture, usually hanging from a ceiling, for holding electric lamps; specifically, a chandelier lit by electricity rather than with candles or gas.First known use late 19th c.

   Artificial illumination is furnished by incandescent electric lamps pendant from a large corona and from side electroliers.

   1891 December, “The Institution and Its Government”, in Sixteenth Year Book Containing the Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira for the Year Ending September, 30, 1891. […], Elmira, N.Y.: N[ew] Y[ork] S[tate] Reformatory Press, →OCLC, page 72

   5 more examples

   Every lamp in the drawing room is shaded, and no one can complain of too much light. Not so, however in the boudoir, where the electric lamps are displayed in all their brilliancy, lighting up the rose du barri walls with a splendour enough to captivate a Frenchwoman. The silvered walls brackets, fender, and electrolier, by Messrs. Verity, are dazzling; […]

   1882 April 1, “Art and Electricity at Sydenham”, in The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, volume III, number 28, London: William Reeves, […], →OCLC, page 98, column 2

   The electric fixtures are the best of their kind that have ever been placed in a public building. […] [E]ach of the thirty-one light electroliers in the Senate and House weighs nearly 900 pounds, and the cost of each was $1,176.00, while the 13 light electroliers in the Supreme Court and Governor's reception room weigh over 400 pounds each, and cost, the first nearly $600.00, and the latter nearly $400.00.

   1903, E. B. Kennedy, “Montana’s Capitol”, in Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana […], volume IV, Helena, Mont.: Independent Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 54

   Also, the Hillbridge house was of an even more gorgeous fancifulness than he had remembered, in its tapestry and velours rockers with carved arms, and the storm of light from the bracket lamps and from the electrolier of crimson, pearl and orange mosaic glass.

   1917 July 28, Sinclair Lewis, “A Woman by Candlelight”, in Mark Schorer, editor, I’m a Stranger Here Myself and Other Stories, Laurel edition, New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., published October 1962, →OCLC, page 50

   Garofalo, the second fiddle, is black, beady-eyed and pot-bellied. The convex reflections of the electroliers slide back and forth over his polished bald head, as he bends, again, again, in little military salutes.

   1923 November, Aldous Huxley, chapter XIII, in Antic Hay, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 192

   At the bottom of the stairs my hand met an electric switch. I turned it, and a great electrolier of twelve red globes flooded the cellar with a red light. And behold, I was not in a cellar, but in a bedroom, a great rich garish bedroom, coloured blood red from top to bottom.

   1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter II, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 16