Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1889 — FOOT LIGHTS. [ARTICLE]

FOOT LIGHTS.

A Useful arid Intelligent Chapter on Stage Illumination. In the days of Queen Elizabeth theatrical performances began at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. As the theaters were exposed and the stage and galleries were open to the sky, artificial lighting was not an absolute necessity. Nevertheless, wax lights appear to have been used for this purpose. In the pastoral play of “The Faithful Shepherdess" Fletcher has these lines: Nor want there those who, as the boy doth dance Between the acts, will censure the whole Some P hdfe lif tho wax lights be new that day; But multitudes there are whose judgment goes . , —*——- Headlong according tothe actor’s clothes. Malone, in his edition of “Shakspeare,” describes the stage as formerly lighted by means of two large branches “of a form similar to those hung in churches." But it was soon found out that the branches obstructed the view of the spectators and were otherwise inconvenient; so they gave way to small j circular wooden frames furnished with eight candles, four on each side. The frontispiece to the Dublin edition Df Chetwood’s “History of the Stage” (1749) shows the stage lighted by hoops of candles in this way, suspended from the proscenium, with no foot lights between the actors and the musicians in the orchestra. The body of the house, according to Malone, was lighted “by cressets or large open lanthorns of nearly the same size as those which are fixed in the poop of a ship.” The use of candles involved the employment of a candle snuffer, who ca me on at a certain pa use of the performmce to tend and rectify the lighting of the stage. His appearance was usually greeted with the same derision which now marks the entrance of the “supo” who carries chairs on or off the stage, spreads or removes a carpet, 3tc. —the same derision, only rather more obstreperous, for the audience were wont to even go so far as hurling missiles at the unfortunate candle snuffer. In Foote’s comedy of “The Minor,” Shift, one of the characters, iscribed the courage which was a component part of his character to the experience gained as a candle snuffer in Drury Lane: “For I think, sir, he who lares stand the shot of the gallery, in lighting, snuffing, and sweeping, tho srst night of a new play, may bid deaance to the pillory, with all its customary complements. But an unlucky erab apple applied to my right eye by l patriot gingerbred maker from the burrough, who would not suffer three lances from Switzerland because he bated the French, forced me to precipitate retreat.” It was Garrick who first introduced footlights on the English stage, in 1765. He borrowed the practice from Italy, having 1 just returned from a journey in that country. When oil lamps took the place of Garrick’s the occupation of the candle 6nuffer was gone forever. Probably the trimming of the lamps became his next iuty, and, as time went on, he developed into the gas man that indispenlable attendant of the modern theater. The street gas lamp, after numerous ibortive experiments, established an uncertain foothold for itself in 1810, ind by 1817 had beoome a permanent institution, GraduaDy4h©- ; new mode of lighting stole from the streets into manufactories and public buildings, and finally into private houses. By 1828 it bad made its way into the theaters, for !n that year an explosion took place in Convent Garden Theater, by which two men lost their lives. Great’«kcitement ensued. The public was afraid to re-enter the theater. The manager published an address stating that the gas fittings would be removed from the interior of tho house and safer methods of illumination substituted. While the alternations were in progress the theater was closed for a fortnight, the Convent Garden Company appearing at the English Opera House or ; Lyceum Theater. Gradually, however, the world grew bolder, and gas again made its appearance on the stage. Still, its employment was strenuously objected to in ; various quarters. In 1829 a physician, 1 writing from Bolton llow and signing | himself “Chiro Medicus," addressed a remonstrance on the subject to a public journal. In the course of his practice he had met with several fatal cases Df apoplexy which had occurred in the , theaters or a few hours after leaving them, and he had devoted much time |to investigating the cause. The conr elusion at which he had 'arrived was | “that the strong, vivid light evolved from the numerous gas lamps on the ; stage so powerfully stimulated the -brain, through the medium Of the Dptic nerves, as to occasion a preternatural determination of blood to tho head, capable of producing headache 1 Dr giddiness, and, if the subject should lat any time laugh hoartily, the additional influx of blood which takes place may rupture a vessel, the consequence of which will be, from the effusion of blood within tho substance of the brain or on its surface, fatal apoplexy.” It was his opinion and that Df many of his professional brethren that tho air of the theater was very JOitslderably deteriorated by the conmmpUon gaS, and 'tHSTwo consumption of oxygen and the new prod-

vets and the escape of hydrogen occasioned congestion of the vessels of the head- Indeed, by actual inquiry he bad found that theater goers and actors were by no means so subject to apoplexy or nervous headaches before the adoption of gas lights as afterward. In spite of all his reasonings, however, “Chiro Medicus” did not succeed in his well meant efforts to turn off the gas. Since his time numerous improvements have been made in the stage foot lights, or floats, as they are tech- | nically called. It was not till 1863 that, at the instance of Charles Fenbter, at ‘ the London Lyceum, the floats were sunk below the surface of the stage, so that they should not intercept the view of the spectators. His example was | speedily followed by other managers; ' and a few years later, owing to accidents which had occurred to the dresses of dancers when they approached too near to the foot lights, these were fenced and guarded with wire screens and metal bars.—William S. Walsh in Lippincott’s Magazine.